Aah... That feels good!

Your soul will rest in eternal peace

Kurt Vonnegut （～2007,04,11）

Reverence VS Report (EWG)

Even if we fired the first salvo of hydrogen weapons and the enemy never fired back, the poisons released would probably kill the whole planet by and by.

“Our economy today is not capitalism.

It’s casino-ism. That’s all the stock market is about. Gambling."

“I’m lucky enough to have known a great president, one who really cared about ALL the people, rich and poor. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was rich himself, and his class considered him a traitor." 　　　　　　--Excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut's "Stardust Memory" at the Ohio State campus.

☆　☆　☆　☆　☆

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die. ... written by Mary Elizabeth Frye (1904-2004). She never published or copyrighted it, so there is no definitive version. Her obituary in The Times made it clear that she was the undisputed author this famous poem. She was born in Dayton, Ohio.

Daisetsu Suzuki Buddhists' ideal

I've learned the difference between the earlier Buddhists(Hinayanists) and the later Buddhists(Mahayanists). I've realised Buddhists' ideal through Mr.Daisetsu Suzuki. I'd like to introduce you to his lecture on Zen philosophy at Wellesley College, March10,1958.

Earlier Buddhists confined their salvation to the individual; they did not extend that teaching of salvation to others. If they were saved, themselves, that was enough. If they save themselves, others also are to save themselves, by themselves, not asking others to help them.

Buddha taught something to that effect: "Do not believe in me; do not believe my teaching. You hear, listen to my talk, and test it by yourself. Appeal to your own experience. And if you find it true, accept it. Don't believe in me just because I have a little more experience than you. Don't believe what I say to you for that reason. Believe in yourself!" That is altogether personal verification, just the opposite of scientific verification. In the end, it comes to yourself. You cannot rely on others. I was switched away.

The earlier Buddhists confined salvation to themselves. Nobody could help others. We have to help ourselves. But Mahayanists, the later Buddhists, thought that was not final. We have what we call sympathy or compassion. That is not just the compound word. I like to divide them into two -- sym-pathy or com-passion. We have feelings in common. So to save oneself we have to save others. We can never save just ourselves. By helping others, I may be able to save myself. My salvation and others' salvation are so intimately involved, connected together, that we can never save ourselves just by ourselves. We must always be saved together. Not simultaneously-- universal salvation may go on 'til the end of time, the end of eternity, if there is such a thing. If there is no end of time, we have to go on saving each other, saving others and oneself. There will be no end.

Mahayanists appeal to the common feeling we all have, not only human beings. This salvation was to be extended to so-called inanimate beings, non-sentient beings. So, universal salvation did not mean just human beings, but animals-- dogs and cats, horses, lions, tigers, snakes, centipedes, scorpions-- they are all to be saved. Not only that , but mountains, trees we see outside, and the rocks, earth, rivers, all those things were to be saved. This universal salvation was not to be confined to just human beings. It was to be extended over all existences, because Mahayana Buddhists conceived that we are not alone, not only among human beings, but with other beings as well.

Mahayanists' ideal person was the one whose loving arms will hold everything: men, women, birds, animals, earth, water and so on . That was called a bodhisattva. Mahayana Buddhists' ideal was to realize bodhisattvahood. (Bodhisattava = Bosatsu in Japanese)

Daisetsu Suzuki 　鈴木大拙　1870-1966　

Japanese author, English-language translator, professor of Zen practice and Buddhist philosophy.He went on a lecture tour of American universities in 1951, and taught at Columbia University from 1952-57.

The ideal man takes joy in doing favors for others

What this woman really wants is love and attention. But she calls it "gratitude." And she will never get gratitude or love, because she demands it. She thinks it's her due.

There are thousands of women like her, women who are ill from "ingratitude," loneliness, and neglect. They long to be loved; but the only way in this world that they can ever hope to be loved is to stop asking for it and to start pouring out love without hope of return.

Does that sound like sheer, impractical, visionary idealism? It isn't. It is just horse sense. It is a good way for you and me to find the happiness we long for. I have seen it happen right in my own family. My own mother and father gave for the joy of helping others. We were poor - always overwhelmed by debts. Yet, poor as we were, my father and mother always managed to send money every year to an orphans' home. The Christian Home in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mother and Father never visited that home. Probably no one thanked them for their gifts - except by letter - but they were richly repaid, for they had the joy of helping little children - without wishing for or expecting any gratitude in return.

After I left home, I would always send Father and Mother a check at Christmas and urge them to indulge in a few luxuries for themselves. But they rarely did. When I came home a few days before Christmas, Father would tell me of the coal and groceries they had bought for some " widder woman" in town who had a lot of children and no money to buy food and fuel. What joy they got out of these gifts - the joy of giving without expecting anything whatever in return!

I believe my father would almost have qualified for Aristotle's description of the ideal man - the man most worthy of being happy. "The ideal man," said Aristotle, "takes joy in doing favors for others."

If we want to find happiness, let's stop thinking about gratitude or ingratitude and give for the inner joy of giving.

Parents have been tearing their hair about the ingratitude of children for ten thousand years. But why should children be thankful - unless we train them to be? Ingratitude is natural - like weeds. Gratitude is like a rose. It has to be fed and watered and cultivated and loved and protected.

If our children are ungrateful, who is to blame? Maybe we are. If we have never taught them to express gratitude to others, how can we expect them to be grateful to us?

Let us remember that to raise grateful children, we have to be grateful. Let us remember "little pitchers have big ears" - and watch what we say. To illustrate - the next time we are tempted to belittle someone's kindness in the presence of our children, let's stop. Let's never say: "Look at these dishcloths Cousin Sue sent for Christmas. She knit them herself. They didn't cost her a cent!" The remark may seem trivial to us - but the children are listening. So, instead, we had better say: "Look at the hours Cousin Sue spent making these for Christmas! Isn't she nice! Let's write her a thank- you note right now." And our children may unconsciously absorb the habit of praise and appreciation.

-- Excerpt from "How to stop worrying and start living" by Dale Carnegie

Wishing you a really happy Christmas.

We share Morrie's lasting gift with the world

I've been thinking about "Selling Sickness " 《The global drug giants are no longer content with selling medicines only to the ill. As Wall Street knows well, there is a lot of money to be made telling healthy people that they're sick. 》 I've noticed this tendency.

That reminds me of "Tuesdays with Morrie" This book provides us with profound wisdom and insight. This is a true story that shines and leaves us forever warmed by its afterglow.

--Excerpt from Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. The book was the result of his visits with his former professor, Morrie Schwartz.

Morrie believed in the inherent good of people. But he also saw what they could become. "People are only mean when they're threatened," he said later that day, "and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture." He exhaled. "Which is why I don't buy into it."

"Here's what I mean by building your own little subculture," Morrie said, "I don't mean you disregard every rule of your community. I don't go around naked, for example. I don't run through red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things- how we think, what we value- those you must choose yourself. You can't let anyone- or any society- determine those for you.

"Take my condition. The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now- not being able to walk, not being able to wipe may ass, waking up some mornings wanting to cry- there is nothing innately embarrassing or shaming about them.

"It's the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It's just what our culture would have you believe. Don't believe it."

I asked Morrie why he hadn't move somewhere else when he was younger. "Where?" I don't know. South America. New Guinea. Some place not as selfish as America.

"Every society has its own problems," Morrie said, lifting his eyebrows, the closest he could come to a shrug.

"The way to do it, I think, isn't to run away. You have to work at creating your own culture.

"Look, no matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don't see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become. But if you're surrounded by people who say 'I want mine now,' you end up with a few people with everything and a military to keep the poor ones from rising up and stealing it.

"The problem, Mitch, is that we don't believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.

"But believe me, when you are dying, you see it is true. We all have the same beginning- birth- and we all have the same end- death. So how different can we be?

"Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you." He squeezed my hand gently. I squeezed back harder.

Written by Mitch Albom (1958-) American sportswriter, lyricist

"Selling Sickness" by Alan and Ray

Over three decades ago the maverick thinker Ivan Illich warned that an expanding medical establishment was medicalising life itself, undermining the human capacity to cope with the reality of suffering and death, and making too many well people into patients. A decade ago medical writer Lynn Payer described the process she called disease-mongering, in which doctors and drug companies unnecessarily widened the boundaries of illness to recruit more patients and sell more drugs. Her writings have become ever more relevant as the industry's marketing roar becomes louder and its grip on the health care system much stronger.

The global drug giants are no longer content with selling medicines only to the ill. As Wall Street knows well, there is a lot of money to be made telling healthy people that they're sick.

There are many different promotional strategies in the selling of sickness, but the common factor among them all is the marketing of fear.

The much-hyped medicines sometimes cause the harm they are supposed to prevent. Long-term hormone replacement therapy seemed to increase the risk of heart attacks for women, while antidepressants appear to increase the risk of suicide among the young. At least one blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug has been withdrawn from the market because it was implicated in deaths. A drug sold as a treatment for common bowel disorders led to constipation so severe that some of its users died; in this case the official government regulators were more interested in protecting drug company profits than the public's health.

-- Excerpt from Selling Sickness written by Alan cassels and Ray Moynihan

Alan Cassels is a pharmaceutical policy researcher at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Ray Moynihan is a journalist specialising in health issues in the ‘British Medical Journal’ It's worth sharing.

Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom

Excerpt from Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. The book was the result of his visits with his former professor, Morrie Schwartz.
” Everyone knows they’re going to die,” he said again, “but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”
So we kid ourselves about death, I said.
“Yes. But there’s a better approach. To know you’re going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That’s better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you’re living.”
How can you ever be prepared to die?
“Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, ‘Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?’ ”
Morrie borrowed freely from all religions. He was born Jewish, but became an agnostic when he was a teenager, partly because of all that had happened to him as a child. He enjoyed some of the philosophies of Buddhism and Christianity, and he still felt at home, culturally, in Judaism. He was a religious mutt, which made him even more open to the students he taught over the years. And the things he was saying in his final months on earth seemed to transcend all religious differences. Death has a way of doing that.
“The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

Did you think much about death before you got sick, I asked.
“No.” Morrie smiled. “I was like everyone else. No one really believes they’re going to die.”
But everyone knows someone who has died, I said. Why is it so hard to think about dying?
“Because,” Morrie continued, “most of us all walk around as if we’re sleepwalking. We really don’t experience the world fully, because we’re half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.”
And facing death changes all that?
“Oh, yes. You strip away all that stuff and you focus on the essentials. When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently.” He sighed. “Learn how to die, and you learn how to live.”
Written by Mitch Albom (1958-)
American sportswriter, lyricist

Le courage de Non - Possession

L'armement le plus fort ne nous rassure jamais.
L'homme perd parfois son sang-froid.

Pourquoi Othello a tué sa femme, Desdemona? Par jalousie? Par manque de sommeil et fatigue de la guerre? Les deux?
Après, Othello s'est suicidé.
S'il avait eu le bouton de la bombe nucléaire?

Tous les médicaments ont des effets secondaires, parmi lesquels, des médicaments pour la dépression nerveuse comme 'Paroxétine' qui sont les plus forts.
Sur la notice, il est écrit "effet secondaire: peut provoquer des tendances suicidaires" 'Paxil'

Si vos parents faisaient une dépression nerveuse, ils auraient beaucoup de chances de prendre des remèdes."Le remède est pire que le mal"
S'ils avaient des bombes, il est possible qu'ils pressent le bouton de déclenchement de la bombe comme le meilleur moyen pour se suicider.

Pour le moment M.X, il garde son sang-froid, mais demain?
Personne ne prévoit ça.

Les négociation avec maîtrise (pas faire appel à la force) est le meilleur remède.

"Ils doivent être ma vraie famille" Jures Renard

Extrait d'une famille d'arbres,"Histoires naturelles"
Ils ne demeurent pas au bord de la route, à cause du bruit.
Ils habitent les champs incultes, sur une source connue des oiseaux seuls.
De loin, ils semblent impénétrables. Dès que j'approche, leurs troncs se desserrent.Ils m'accueillent avec prudence.
Je peux me reposer, me rafraîchir, mais je devine qu'ils m'observent et se défient.

Ils mettent longtemps à mourir, et ils gardent les morts debout jusqu'à la chute en poussière.
Ils se flattent de leurs longues branches, pour s'assurer qu'ils sont tous là, comme les aveugles.
Ils gesticulent de colère si le vent s'essouffle à les déraciner. Mais entre eux aucune dispute. Ils ne murmurent que d'accord.

Je sens qu'ils doivent être ma vraie famille. J'oublierai vite l'autre. C'est arbres m'adopteront peu à peu.
--Jules Renard (1864-1910), écrivain français

H.D.Thoreau "You must get your living by loving"

The Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever”
It says, “It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out. It doesn’t matter much to me.”
That reminds me of “Life Without Principle” by H.D. Thoreau.

Excerpt from "Life Without Principle"
Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.

If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!

The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward. To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse. If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself.
As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct.

The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
It is remarkable that there are few men so well employed, so much to their minds, but that a little money or fame would commonly buy them off from their present pursuit.
If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage.There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
All great enterprises are self-supporting.

Merely to come into the world the heir of a fortune is not to be born; but to be stillborn, rather. You must get your living by loving.

In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this long while.
Really to see the sun rise or go down every day, so to relate ourselves to a universal fact, would preserve us sane forever.
Written by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862 )
American author, philosopher, and naturalist
My close friend gave me "Walden, Civil disobedience and other writings on society" as a gift. At that time, it was Greek to me, but now I can read it. One joy also came to me today.
I'm so happy to recommend you one of his works.

張麗玲(chou rei rei) acts as a go-between

En décembre 1995, 張麗玲(chou rei rei) avait 28ans. Elle a décidé de filmer des personnes qui sont venues au japon comme étudiant.

A ce moment-là, elle était employée d’une entreprise au japon et elle manquait de budget.

Mais elle est allée à la station de télévision sans rendez-vous et a demandé de l’aide, par exemple, une caméra vidéo.
Son supérieur, un réalisateur de télévision et sa famille ont apporté leur soutien à son projet.

Enfin en 1999, ses documentaires sont passé dans des émissions en Chine, puis au japon.
Ces temps-ci ses documentaires ont un certain succès.

Quand on utilise un «décodeur », on peut se procurer des renseignements précis.
Aussi bien qu’on peut comprendre les souffrances des personnes qui sont venues de pays étrangers, par des documentaires.
C’est très salutaire pour l’un l’autre.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice

Excerpt from Reports. Oct 19, 2006
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated. Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat's birthday,(Nov.6.)
(The next day was elections.)
Written by Kevin Tillman. He joined the Army with his brother in 2002, and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was discharged in 2005. His brother, N.F.L. player, Pat Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, by fire from his fellow soldiers.

Robert Scheer, a liberal syndicated columnist and the editor of Truthdig, based in Santa Monica, Calif. said of Kevin Tillman,"He is not proselytizing, he is not a political person. He just decided because his birthday was coming up he felt strongly that he had to say something. Since the article went up on the Web site, it has received more than 4,000 responses, though Web server limits have prohibited publishing that many".
For example, Comment#32292 "The points you make in your story are so important and I hope lots of people get to see this article".

The coalition takes enormous precautions

A team of American and Iraq epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

Of the total 655,000 estimated "excess deaths," 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.

The survey was done by Iraqi physicians and overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. The findings are being published online today (October 11, 2006) by the British medical journal the Lancet.

"We're very confident with the results," said Gilbert Burnham, a Johns Hopkins physician and epidemiologist

"The Department of Defense always regrets the loss of any innocent life in Iraq or anywhere else," said Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. "The coalition takes enormous precautions to prevent civilian deaths and injuries."
-- Excerpt from washingtonpost.com

The population of Iraq (2006 estimate) is 26,783,383. Encyclopedia

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

1. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

2. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

日本国民は、正義と秩序を基調とする国際平和を誠実に希求し、国権の発動たる戦争と、武力による威嚇又は武力の行使は、国際紛争を解決する手段としては、永久にこれを放棄する。

前項の目的を達するため、陸海空軍その他の戦力は、これを保持しない。国の交戦権は、これを認めない

Tomorrow, Nov.3 is Japan's national holiday called "Culture Day" (文化の日: bunka=文化　no=の hi=日 ）. Japanese Constitution was officially announced in 1946 and came into force on May 3 in 1947. To commemorate these events, Nov.3 and May 3 were made into national holidays.

Japan's Article 9 came after the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, Article 9 reflects this new reality of potential nuclear and other kinds of technological annihilation of the species.

Nine public intellectuals (like Kenzaburo Oe or Ooe 大江健三郎) established Article 9 Association in 2004 to shine the light of Article 9 upon this turbulent world, in order to join hands with the peace-seeking citizens of the world.

Many persons want friendly, sympathetic listener

As the Reader’s Digest once said: “Many persons call a doctor when all they want is an audience.”
During the darkest hours of the Civil War, Lincoln Wrote to an old friend in Springfield, Illinois, asking him to come to Washington. Lincoln said he had some problems he wanted to discuss with him. The old neighbor called at the White House, and Lincoln talked to him for hours about the salves. Lincoln went over all the arguments for and against such a move, and then read letters and newspaper articles, some denouncing him for not freeing the salves and others denouncing him for fear he was going to free them. After talking for hours, Lincoln shook hands with his old neighbor, said good night, and sent him back to Illinois without even asking for his opinion. Lincoln had done all the talking himself. That seemed to clarify his mind.

“He seemed to feel easier after that talk,” the old friend said. Lincoln hadn’t wanted advice. He had wanted merely a friendly, sympathetic listener to whom he could unburden himself. That’s what we all want when we are in trouble. That is frequently all the irritated customer wants, and the dissatisfied employee or the hurt friend.

If you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.

Listening is just as important in one’s home life as in the world of business.
Millie Esposito of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, made it her business to listen carefully when one of her children wanted to speak with her. One evening she was sitting in the kitchen with her son, Robert, and after a brief discussion of something that was on his mind, Robert said: “Mom, I know that you love me very much.”

Mrs.Esposito was touched and said: “Of course I love you very much. Did you doubt it?” Robert responded: “No, but I really know you love me because whenever I want to talk to you about something, you stop whatever you are doing and listen to me.”
-- Excerpt from "How to Win Friends & Influence People"
Written by Dale Carnegie edited by Denik
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) Pioneer in self-improvement training

Amish & Muslim examples

I read an article on the Amish school shooting on Oct2, 2006.
A grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls says, “We must not think evil of this man.”
Amish neighbor comforted the murder’s family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.

While reading, I’ve just remembered Ms. Welty’s case.
She lost her son, Firefighter Timothy Matthew Welty in the line of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.
She visited Afghanistan in 2004, and met many families who had lost their homes and family members in the American bombing. She saw small children with artificial legs or arms, some were blind and all were scarred- not only physically but emotionally.

Yet, these people embraced her as a grieving mother, not as the enemy. They, like the families of 9/11, understand the true impact of the term civilian casualties.
Ms.Welty says, “We believe the cycle of violence and human trauma perpetrated in the name of our loved ones, must end, not only for ourselves, our own children and grandchildren, but for all generations to come on the face of the earth.”

"There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self."
-- Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) an English writer

24-yr-old Thompson rescued Vietnamese civilians

For years, the U.S. military tried to cover up the My Lai massacre. In 1968, Hugh Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta rescued Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre.

They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings.

“There were no weapons captured. There were no draft-age males killed. They were civilians,” says Colburn, referring to the ditch filled with bodies. “It was full … some of the people were still, they were dying, they weren't all dead.”

“I saved the people because I wasn't taught to murder and kill. I can't answer for the people who took part in it,” says Thompson. “I apologize for the ones that did. I just wished we could have helped more people that day.”
In fact, they did help more people. Thompson and Colburn found nine or 10 villagers cowering in a bunker. They radioed for a couple of choppers, which airlifted all of them to safety.

Later, Thompson was treated not as a hero, but as a traitor. He suffered snubs and worse from those who considered him unpatriotic. He recalled a congressman angrily saying that Thompson himself was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai.

As the years passed, Thompson became an example for future generations of soldiers, said Col. Tom Kolditz, head of the U.S. Military Academy's behavioral sciences and leadership department. Thompson went to West Point once a year to give a lecture on his experience, Kolditz said.

In 1998, the Army honored the three men with the prestigious Soldier's Medal, the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy.

"It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," Army Maj. Gen. Michael Ackerman said at the 1998 ceremony. The three "set the standard for all soldiers to follow."

But 30 years had passed since the massacre, and Thompson says it was strangely unsatisfying. Too late, he says, from a reluctant military leadership. But he felt far different on the stage in Nashville, as he was inducted on the first ballot into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame.

He says it’s a big honor. “This is my peers electing me to put me in there,” says Thompson. “This is my fellow aviators. And that makes me feel good.”

Thompson died Jan. 6. 2006. He was 62 yrs old. I shall never forget you.

--Excerpt from
Common dreams (a national non-profit citizens' organization)
60 Minutes

Why did Andrew Carnegie pick 38-yr-old-Schwab ?

français 1, 2
One of the first people in American business to be paid a salary of over a million dollars a year was Charles Schwab.
He had been picked by Andrew Carnegie to become the first president of the newly formed United States Steel Company in 1921, when Schwab was only thirty-eight years old.

Schwab says that he was paid this salary largely because of his ability to deal with people.

"I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people. The greatest asset I possess, the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.
There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise."

This is what Schwab did. But what do average people do? The exact opposite. If they don't like a thing, they bawl out their subordinates; if they do like it, they say nothing.

"In my wide association in life, meeting with many and great people in various parts of the world," Schwab declared, "I have yet to find the person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism."
That he said, frankly, was one of the outstanding reasons for the phenomenal success of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie praised his associates publicly as well as privately.

Carnegie wanted to praise his assistants even on his tombstone. He wrote an epitaph for himself which read: "Here lies one who knew how to get around him men who were cleverer than himself."
-- Excerpt from "How to Win Friends & Influence People"
Written by Dale Carnegie edited by Denik
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) Pioneer in self-improvement training

He had been told he was 'brain-damaged'

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If you want to help others to improve, remember...

"My son David, he had led a rough life. His mother and I were divorced after a car accident. Until he was fifteen he had spent most of his school years in special classes for slow learners in the Dallas school system. He was two years behind his age group, so he was only in the seventh grade. Yet he did not know his multiplication tables, added on his fingers and could barely read.

There was one positive point. He loved to work on radio and TV sets. He wanted to become a TV technician. I encouraged this and pointed out that he needed math to qualify for the training. I decided to help him become proficient in this subject. We obtained four sets of flash cards: multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. I made a big deal out of each card he got right, particularly if he had missed it previously. Each night we would go through the repeat stack until there were no cards left. Each night we timed the exercise with a stop watch.

I promised him that when he could get all the cards correct in eight minutes with no incorrect answers, we would quit doing it every night. This seemed an impossible goal to David. The first night it took 52 minutes, the second night, 48, then 45, 44, 41, then under 40 minutes. We celebrated each reduction. I'd call in my wife, and we would both hug him and we'd all dance a jig.

At the end of the month he was doing all the cards perfectly in less than eight minutes. When he made a small improvement he would ask to do it again.
He had made the fantastic discovery that learning was easy and fun.
Other changes came with almost unbelievable rapidity.

He had been told he was 'brain-damaged,' who had been called 'Frankenstein' by his classmates and told his brains must have leaked out of the cut on his head.
Once he found learning was easy, his whole life changed."
-- Excerpt from "How to Win Friends & Influence People"
Written by Dale Carnegie edited by Denik

Benjamin Franklin "I will speak ill of no man"

B.F.Skinner, the world-famous psychologist, proved through his experiments that an animal rewarded for good behavior will learn much more rapidly and retain what it learns far more effectively than an animal punished for bad behavior. Later studies have shown that the same applies to humans. By Criticizing, we do not make lasting changes and often incur resentment.

Hans Selye, another great psychologist, said, "As much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation."

Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person's precious pride, hurts his sense of importance, and arouses resentment.

(... Abraham Lincoln put the letter aside, for he had learned by bitter experience that sharp criticisms and rebukes almost invariably end in futility.)

Benjamin Franklin, tactless in his youth, became so diplomatic, so adroit at handling people, that he was made American Ambassador to France. The secret of his success? "I will speak ill of no man," he said, "... and speak all the good I know of everybody."
-- Excerpt from "How to Win Friends & Influence People"
Written by Dale Carnegie