Dear Webmaster,
I am writing today about an important issue. It hit home the other evening when, for the first time in my 22 years in Fairfield, Iowa, we had a tornado touch down in our town. As I sat in the basement, I thought, this is what it’s like sitting in a bomb shelter, not knowing if you will have a home when it is all over. We were lucky. There was no damage. Elsewhere in the world, this is not the case.
The recent events in Kosovo make it more clear than ever how dangerous and unpredictable the old strategy of meeting violence with violence actually is.
Violence begets violence. Violence doesn’t create peace, and negotiations haven’t created peace. These approaches haven’t worked because they don’t address the underlying cause of the violence, which is the tension and negativity that is boiling up in this area.
There is only one approach that has been scientifically validated to reduce tension and negativity and promote harmony and peace in a nation: group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program, including Yogic Flying.
More than 40 research studies over the past 25 years, published in leading, peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Conflict Resolution, have shown that group practice of Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying creates harmony and peace and reduces social stress, violence, and conflict in war-torn areas.
The U.S. government should act now to create such a group to quickly and simply remove the root cause of the violence: stress in world consciousness.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message and for following it up. Any action you take to help get the word out would be so much appreciated. This is real stuff. I have been practicing the TM technique for 26 and a half years, and the TM-Sidhi program for 22 years. I have had firsthand experience of its power and benefits.
Sincerely,
Toni Alazraki
Readers Respond to Ken Layne’s Kosovo Article
“The Crime Syndicate Behind the KLA”
He is so correct. Too bad you cannot get this info onto some of the front pages of our large U.S. papers, which keep depicting the Serbs as the ONLY war criminals. They ought to split Kosovo, like Cyprus, into a northern and southern sector, and let the Kosovo Albanians have the rocky south near their homeland. And be done with it.
Maj. (Sel.) Kim Schmidt, USAF Dear Ken,
Your article on The MoJo Wire was very informative. I’m a 57-year-old veteran, so I’ve been around a while. I tend to believe what you say about the drugs and the KLA, etc. Please tell me, if you can, what your references are. If you can’t, point me to other references.
Personally, I abhor this attack on Yugoslavia, and although I have been what most could consider a loyal, voting, tax-paying American citizen, I tend to view the NATO action as criminal in nature. The drug connection could explain it all.
Rick Speth Your article in Mother Jones, “Why Albanians Started the War,” belonged in Serb propaganda leaflets.
[Ed. Note: We changed the name of this article to “The Crime Syndicate Behind the KLA,” which we thought better reflected the content contained within. ]
With unprecedented arrogance and ignorance, you overlook 10 years of peaceful resistance led by the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), headed by Ibrahim Rugova. Every Albanian emigrant contributed three percent of his income to fund the schools and medical system that was organized throughout Kosova.
Distributing unfounded myths about druglords is as absurd as the statement that stocks are up because of U.S. arm exports. Other articles on the MoJo Wire show that those who get caught in Swiss jails are simply the small guys on the lowest level. Do you really believe that the natives in Switzerland or elsewhere would let such a “profitable” business go to foreigners?!
It’s a disgrace to publish such “insights” in the face of hundred of thousands of deportees.
I’m putting a red mark on your URL
Andi Schwarz
Durham, North Carolina Nice try at sounding neutral — you almost had me there for a minute. You forgot to put some bullshit in there about stolen Russian nuclear weapons to be used for a new Islamic movement or something like that.
Face it, fool — nothing shapes people’s opinions like actual photos of innocent people being murdered by the Serbian Gestapo. In this day and age, your kind of contorted crap doesn’t cut it. Conspiracy theories are always the work of paranoid people like yourself
David Roper The way you’ve painted the picture of the war in Kosovo leads me to believe that the Serbs have nothing do with this conflict whatsoever, and the KLA is entirely to blame? They brought the Serbians into this war.
What about Bosnia-Herzegovina? The Serbs are innocent bystanders trying to protect their people? Are you kidding me? You must be. This is some sort of sick joke on your part. As the old saying goes, “It takes two to tango.” Maybe a small portion of Albanians are to blame for part of this conflict, but the immense human rights violations acted out against ethnic Albanians by the Serbs and documented by Amnesty International would have me believe another story.
Andre Paris
More Comments on Our Kosovo Coverage
Thank you so much for the alternative coverage of the war in Kosovo. It is about time we hear another side of the story, and not the corporate-run media’s version of the story. I have a Serbian friend here in the U.S. who pointed out to me months ago the fact that heroin plays a major role in the region.
One question the U.S. government must answer was posed by Misha Glenny on “Charlie Rose” a few nights ago. He asked that we consider NATO the major force of destabilization in the region — over the Serb forces. Now, ask yourself this question … Would YOU live in a neighborhood where bombs were falling?
Sincerely,
Bud King
Congratulations on so dutifully translating Defense Department/Pentagon war propaganda into liberalese for your readership. Where else could we learn that Milosevic in particular, and Serbs in general, are irredeemable brutes and that the members of the KLA are noble freedom-fighters?
This isn’t surprising, though, given the fact that fifteen years earlier you provided a similar service to the proto-Talabani Aghan Mujahedeen by running touching human-interest stories on the KLA of that time and place.
You’re also to be commended on the timeliness of your partisan coverage as NATO’s Luftwaffe is devastating civilian targets throughout Yugoslavia. I’m sure dedication of this kind doesn’t go unappreciated in Brussels and Foggy Bottom.
My regrets to her who lends you her name.
Rick Rozoff
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Editors,
Why do you write only about one man, Milosevic?
Why don’t you write about Serbians?
Do you know how they live in this terrible situation? Is this your value — to bomb one people to protect another? Why do you find reason for war?
I think that this is your typical character — to kill others. American Indians, Africans, Vietnamese … who’s next?
Tanya Zelinski
It is obvious now to all but the most stupid and aggressive military warlords and “statesMEN” that the bombing has made the situation (which originally was insurrection and retaliatory suppression) far worse.As a small child I suffered during the German Blitz on my home town of Hull.
Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Robertson the defense minister, and Robin Cook speak volumes of what they are going to do to Yugoslavia. They are doing it unmercifully, without sympathy or thought for the children they are traumatizing (and making huge profits for weapons manufacturers in the process). THEY have never been bombed.
My God, how I wish they could be.
Regards,
Fred Gray
Bob Harris Plays Stephen Glass
MoJo,
I hate to sound stupid, but are the comments in Bob Harris’ piece actual quotes? I have to know. I can believe some of the quotes, but some seem pretty outrageous. Either way, I laughed out loud (I cannot bring myself to use the Internet code).
Chris Arnold
Chris —
Read Bob Harris’ lead closely:
“American political reality increasingly lets fundraising overcome obvious limitations…”
Happy April Fool’s Day!
— MoJo
