Back to Life

Both the glorious city of Prague and its majestic, serene river, the Vltava or Moldau (take your pick), have returned to some semblance of normal. The flood waters are receding - slowly - having caused far less damage than the 2002 floods. The beautiful, wide embankments which are such a pleasure to walk upon, are still under water, about four feet. But the subways are open, the cafes are bustling, the days are glorious and sunny, and the swans have returned to their peaceful meanderings along he river shore. 

And I have finally adjusted to living with one eye, for the time being, and have already returned to work and back on the computer. Lots of work ahead of me, with summer camp coming up and work on my novel. Everything  feels fine and peaceful and I'm looking forward to lots of good reading, including a list of great spy novels, with Red Sparrow at the top of the list.

I just finished Barara Kingsolver's harrowing, deeply moving novel, Flight Behavior, which explores the horrors of climate change as seen through the eyes of an ordinary, struggling Tennesee housewife. One of the most frightening literary novels I've read in some time, for the very effective way it drives home the impending disaster coming down upon all of us. To borrow an image used by one of the scientists in the book, think 'Niagra Falls,' you are in a canoe, the roar is deafening, the abyss is in view and there is no turning back for a slow paddle back to shore. The story revolves around the stunning discovery of a colony of thousands of migrating Monarch butterflies, who have bypassed their usual yearly migrating site in Mexico and landed insread in a forest in rural, Bible Belt Tennessee. The locals see it as an act of Divine Grace;  the scientists, however, are grief stricken as they witness the extinction process of a beautiful species. Yet the book actually succeedes in ending on a note of some hope for the human community, as the crisis itself brings people together into new forms of cooperation.  Deeply spiritual message, which reminds me of mystical activist, Andrew Harvey's latest book, The Hope.

Prague Under Water

Terrible floods in Central Europe, at the moment, with flooding in the south of the country and the historic center of Prague threatened by rising river waters. We're all hoping and praying this is not a repeat of the 2002 disaster, which caused two billion dollars damage and was a terrible blow to the Czech economy. But it's already bad. Forecasters and tentatively predicting the Vltava river will reach its peak levels tomorrow by 7 and - hopefully- begin receding. But predictions are changing every moment.
I'm safe in the southern district of Podoli, about three miles from the  center. The land on the other side of us is much lower, so all the excess water is flowing in that direction. But our favorite riverside cafe is a foot under water at the moment and probably at least a meter by tomorrow morning. Mother swans with their chicks are anxious and confused, huddling by the river bank seeking shelter.

This is a terrible tragedy for the country and puts everything into perspective.

Signs of Hope: Cardinal Defends Gay Marriage Legislation

Cardinal Godfried Daneels of Belgium speaks out about gay marriage.

This hopeful, wise and inspiring article was taking from the site Catholic Conclave (or is it the Cardinal's words that are,hopeful, wise and inspiring?) More signs of change in the Church and indications that the glacial icebergs are melting.

Cardinal Godfried Danneels defends legislation for same-sex marriage in an interview with this newspaper, though he feels that there is another term that should be found for relationships between people of the same sex. Archbishop Leonard sides with him. 'Do not call it gay marriage, but a gay relationship. "

D e Tijdspoke with Godfried Danneels following his eightieth birthday.

There have been months of massive demonstrations against gay marriage, which has been accepted by parliament. In France on Wednesday, there was the first legally blessed marriage , heavily protected from protesters. When asked what he thinks of the attitude of his church in this discussion Danneels says, "You know what the Church says about these problems, I do not want to go against it. But I think it's a positive development that states open up free civil marriage for homosexuals if they want. "

Can you not as a human being identify with this orientation?

Cardinal Godfried Danneels,

The reasoning goes like this: "Can you not as a human being identify with this orientation? I think there is a clear evolution in the thinking of the church. Also towards people who commit suicide, for example. Previously, that condemned you to be not being buried in a cemetery - of course you cannot do such things! It is much more nuanced thinking about the person in their totality rather than being fixated on the moral principle. '

Politically sensitive

Same-sex marriage is currently politically sensitive in several European countries.The British Parliament is considering the opening up of civil marriage to persons of the same sex. In Paris, hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets against gay marriage. Recently historian Dominique Venner put a bullet through his head at the high altar of Notre Dame in protest against gay marriage. Nineteen countries, including Belgium, have already opened civil marriage , dozens of other countries will follow in the coming years.

On what is legal, what one can do legitimately and legally, the Church has nothing to say.

CardinalGodfried Danneels,

Danneels has a reputation of being in the vanguard of the troops. As in 2004, when he set the Vatican in turmoil by declaring that someone who is HIV positive would be better to use a condom during sex. About gay marriage, he is clear, albeit cautiously: "It is positive if states want to regulate the relationships between people of the same sex but for the Church it is not real marriage as between man and woman. So you have a different name cited in the dictionary sites. But on what is legal, what one can do legitimately and legally, the Church has nothing to say.. "

Obligation

The statements fit in with a change in the Vatican.

Paul Van Geest,

Professor of Church History, University of Tilburg

“What Cardinal Danneels says is remarkable. Here he creates a noteworthy opening, because the institution of the Church is opposed to a civil marriage, that regulates and legitimises sexual relationships between people of the same sex' "says Rik Torfs, professor of canon law and rector-elect of the university. Paul Van Geest, professor of church history and his colleague at the University of Tilburg, gives perspective."There is the story put out by the New York Times that the current Pope, Jorge Bergoglio, as archbishop of Buenos Aires behind the scenes campaigned for legal rights for gay couples and civil union, a fight he lost in the Argentine Episcopal Conference. (See Cathcon- witness inside the Episcopal Conference) ;The statements fit in with a change in the Vatican. "

Also Archbishop Andre Leonard sides with Danneels, "The position of Danneels is that of the Archbishop ', says Jeroen Moens, a spokesman for the archdiocese."Monsignor Leonard has no problem with a legal commitment between gay men. But he would not call it marriage. Let us say that Monsignor Leonard endorses a gay commitment. Marriage happens before the Church in the complementarity of man and woman. Such complementarity is impossible between two people of the same sex. "

Let us say that Monsignor Leonard endorses a gay commitment.

Jeroen Moens,

Archdiocese spokesman

Danneels, in other words, is not the only ecclesiastical dignitary who recently reached out to gay couples. Archbishop Piero Marini, the Papal Master of Ceremonies promoted by Pope Benedict (Cathcon- well, not exactly) recently remarked that "it is time to recognize that many couples suffer because their civil rights are not recognized. 

Similar words were spoken earlier this year Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family - before he was rebuffed

Source Cathcon- Archbishop Leonard is in theory at least meant to be a conservative. Like origami, turn a conservative inside out and you get a liberal. You cannot do that with tradition. See also German Cardinal defends mutually caring homosexual relationships

Eyeless in Prague

Well, the King of Thailand and I have something in common, since we both have only one eye, at least temporarily. Pneumonia 'palsied' the optic nerve in brain that controls my left eye muscles, Dr. says, so I have quite severe double vision. Must wear eye patch for two to three months until it resolves itself hopefully. If not, surgery. Good news is I can read, work on computer, and teach classes - though not easily and without left peripheral vision, so must be careful I don't step on any of my little ones. But life is not so easy anymore. Don't know when I will be able to resume blogging on any regular basis. But listening to a lot of music and audio books, quite a treat. 

Yet in all of this there is Peace and the inner assurance that all will be well in 'God's good time.'

UK Catholic primary school becomes champion of gay equality

This encouraging story just in from UK's Telegraph

Catholic school calls in Stonewall after boy calls pupil's shoes 'gay'

A Roman Catholic school called in a gay rights group to give staff lessons in how to stop homophobic bullying after claims a five-year-old boy called another pupil’s shoes “gay”.

The jibe was made in the infants’ playground of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Wimbledon, southwest London, according to a school source.

It was reported by a supervisor at the school to Sarah Crouch, the head teacher, who decided that it amounted to homophobic abuse.

Miss Crouch then invited Stonewall, the gay rights group, to teach staff how to educate children in sexual equality.

The training day went ahead last September with the consent of all but one of the governors and with the approval of the authorities of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark.

The school is now the first and only Catholic primary school in the country to be listed as a Stonewall “Primary School Champion” of gay equality.

Stonewall resources for primary schools are based around a pack called “Different Families, Same Love”, which teaches the message that same-sex couple households are equal to those founded on marriage between heterosexuals.

Children are taught not to use the word “gay” derisively, even if they say it to mean “bad” or “rubbish”, because it would upset children who might be gay or might have gay parents.

But the decision to allow Stonewall into a Catholic primary has surprised family campaigners who believe that the gay rights group should not be allowed to impose its views on young children.

They claimed that such incidents were being used as a device for the group to enter schools to teach “gay propaganda”.

Antonia Tully, national coordinator of the Safe at School campaign, said that the presence of gay activists in primary schools may alarm parents. “Many parents will be very concerned that a gay rights organisation is considered to be an appropriate source of advice on how to deal with children using inappropriate language in the playground.

“If a primary school takes on Stonewall’s agenda, young children will be exposed to homosexual issues which they are too young to understand properly. Parents expect a school to provide an education, not subject their children to gay propaganda.”

One parent at the school, who gave his name only as Peter, said he was concerned that the teachers were being trained to undermine the idea of a family being based on a marriage between a man and a woman.

“Homophobia is never acceptable, and should be stamped out of children as young as possible. But there is a massive difference between that and teaching young children about gay relationships.

“Church teaching is around the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. You don’t expect a Catholic school to be teaching anything else.”

Miss Crouch said she called the campaign group in to St Mary’s to train staff “on how to tackle homophobic language and bullying”.

“As a school, and as Catholics, we are opposed to prejudice of any kind and felt it was important to tackle the issue of homophobic language and bullying.

“The training was very successful and we feel confident that if any incidents of this kind of language occur our staff have the means to address them appropriately.”

Return from Hospital/Rejoicing for Minnesota.

1. I've just returned from a three day stay in hospital, recovering from complications arising out of my bout with pneumonia. The hospital itself was so lovely, like an old fashioned spa sanitarium, with a long, spacious yellow corridor outside my room, with lace curtains on the windows blowing in the breeze, very comfortable armchairs and sofas and potted plants arranged by the windows all the way down the corridors, and cafe tables with fresh flowers outside the rooms- giving patients the option of taking their meals in their beds or at the tables. The Czech staff were the most wonderful of any hospital I've every stayed in, friendly, witty, mischievous and so genuinely happy.

(Don't know how that #1 got there at beginning of paragraph. Must have pressed a wrong button:)

But what a joy to return home and to hear the news of the historic decision to approve gay marriage in the US state of Minnesota, with so much tireless effort expended by Catholics for this result in the face of vitriolic opposition from Archbishop John Nienstedt. Besides being a clear and radiant sign that the Holy Spirit is on the side of equality for all, this historic decision also highlights the clear message of the Spirit that church authority can so often be quite fallible and misguided, misleading the faithful into toxic positions at variance with the gospels. The real conduits of the Spirit in this historic moment are the many dedicated laity who represent the true spiritual leadership of the church.

For full commentary and wonderful, heartwarming photos, visit Michael Bayly's great blog, Wild Reed.

Sister Megan Rice- at age 83- gets 20 years.

I found this story deeply moving, sad and inspiring all at once, especially Sister Megan's courageous remark that she wished she hadn't waited 70 years to take action. This is the essence of following in the way of Jesus in confronting the principalities and powers of this world. A truly brave woman, our prayers should be with her, as she begins her ordeal at such a late age. She will, no doubt, die in prison. She reportedly smiled as the verdict was read. It takes a burning love for the Crucified to imbue a person with such joyful acceptance of the cross, and reminds me of the peace and joy of the early Christians marching to their deaths in the Roman Colosseum, yearning to give their all for their Divine Master. As Blessed Charles de Foucaud said so eloquently, expressing his own burning desire for martyrdom:

       When one can suffer and love, one can do almost anything, even things in this world which seem impossible. 

Sister Megan Rice enters prison for all of us. Would that we had her resolute faith and her unshakeable serenity in the face of trial and suffering. To this way all Christians are called, depending on their capacity for love and sacrifice. 

However, here is a dissenting view from National Catholic Reporter well worth pondering:

It seems to me that Arun Gandhi's criticism of the Plowshares actions back in 1995 also applies to the
"Transform Now Plowshares".
Arun Gandhi said: "You can quote me as saying Mahatma Gandhi would disagree with the Plowshares actions because they employ tactics of secrecy and destruction of property. I also think locking up the most courageous and devoted peace leaders for long prison terms is a way of weakening the peace movement. Those leaders could do much more for peace outside of jail than in it." ( The Jesus Journal - Summer 1995 - No. 77 - page 44 )

"Common people who are not directly involved in social debates and political conflicts have their lives to live, they become angry at those who are disturbing their lives or damaging property that has to be repaired using public funds. Thus the average person, whose support is often necessary for lasting success, is alienated. Rather than leading to a resolution, they escalate the conflict and create more deeply entrenched opponents." (Legacy of Love by Arun Gandhi – page 132)

Finally, here is the news:

An 83-year-old nun who broke into a Tennessee depleted uranium storage facility in 2012 and splashed human blood on several surfaces, exposing a massive security hole at the nation’s only facility used to store radioactive conventional munitions, was convicted Wednesday and sentenced to a term of up to 20 years in prison.

The only regret Sister Megan Rice shared with members of her jury on Wednesday was that she wished 70 years hadn’t passed before she took direct action, according to the BBC. She and two other peace activists, 64-year-old Michael Walli and 56-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed, were convicted of “invasion of a nuclear facility” in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, even though investigators admitted they did not get close to any actual nuclear material.

The three activists are part of a group called “Transform Now Plowshares,” a reference to the book of Isaiah, which says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares. They shall learn war no more.” All three face individual sentences of up to 20 years, along with a litany of fines.

As they invaded the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, a perimeter fence was cut, several surfaces were spray-painted, banners were hung and activists read from the Bible. They also spread human blood on several surfaces, saying its use was symbolic, meant to remind people “of the horrific spilling of blood by nuclear weapons.”

“The shortcomings in security at one of the most dangerous places on the planet have embarrassed a lot of people,” the activists’ attorney, Francis Lloyd, told members of the jury according to the BBC. “You’re looking at three scapegoats behind me.”

Sister Rice has been arrested between 40 or 50 times committing acts of civil disobedience, according to The New York Times, including once in Nevada after she physically blocked a truck at a nuclear test site.

Depleted uranium munitions like the kind stored at the facility Sister Rice targeted are blamed for some of the worst birth defects and soaring cancer rates seen in post-war Iraq, particularly in the city of Fallujah following the siege of 2004, in which U.S. soldiers killed thousands of civilians.

The city has never recovered, particularly from the use of depleted uranium munitions, and to this day residents suffer from health effects “worse” than those seen following the nuclear detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to a study by theInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

“I believe we are all equally responsible to stop a known crime,” Sister Rice said from the witness stand, according to quotes published by her group. She called herself a “citizen of the world” and reportedly smiled as the verdict was read.

This video is from ABC News, aired August 2, 2012.

Presence Through Movement. Peace in the Face of Evil

Here is a  beautiful series on presence through movement from Kim Eng, the wife of renowned spiritual master, Eckhart Tolle (video below). The shy boy who said he spent his adolescence in anxiety over finding a girlfriend has discovered his perfect life partner through the generosity of the universe. She is clearly a master in her own right, imbued with a deep inner peace.  

Practicing this 'Presence' is essential for spiritual and psychological balance throughout the day, centering oneself and accessing the divine inner peace and compassion and allowing it to flood itself upon the world through your own open being. Remaining centered in this Presence is also essential for social activists and all those who must confront the evil of the world. I try to limit my own immersion into or exposure to stories of terrible injustice and social evil, because they can have a toxic effect on one's spiritual peace. But this is not the same thing as ignoring injustice or burying one's head in the sand. Quite often the 'Great Compassion,' as the Buddhists like to phrase it, will guide you to take into  your heart and soul the essence of evil and injustice in order to confront it and lead the world to healing. But without being grounded in the Great Compassion and surrendering to it with absolute trust and faith, no matter what the trials and travails of life in this world, one can quickly be lost and descend into pessimism and despair. 

Every issue I feel called to examine, contemplate, absorb and discern I take to prayer first and last during the day, asking for the Divine Spirit to guide my own searches, to illuminate my own being, and through that gentle inner peace to lead me to certain conclusions about the issues. Without this inner guidance I would be trapped in the turmoil and anxiety of the forces of contradiction and further trapped in the inner recesses of the mind, which cannot of its own and unaided, discern correctly the inner realities of complex issues of social injustice and systemic evil. There are simply too many lies coming at one like a thousand shards of glass. Inner peace gives one the calm and balance to discern with objectivity and the proper distance. It also imbues one with the sense of a blazing inferno of lovering compassion at the 'still center of the turning world, ' a love so profound and so powerfully energetic that it consumes all evil in its blazing furnace, while remaining paradoxically still and silent and unmoved. A stillness so profound, it imbues one with the inner sense that there is nothing to fear, that evil has no objective existence or  power to harm in any ultimate, absolute sense, that Love does indeed conquer all - but not without suffering and surrender of the heart to its purging flames. Inner peace and the Living Flame of Love within one's deepest being illuminate and unmask the forces of evil that obscure for so many the radiant Light of the Great Compassion. But with this gift comes obligations born out of gratitude, the call to bring peace and the illuminating light of truth into the marketplace and the town square, and into the deepest centers of violence and injustice. The Great Compassion lovingly calls us to confront the principalities and powers of this world, just as it called the Divine Master two thousand years ago, who's own prophetic calling led him to the tree of torture on the hill of  skulls. Divine light and compassion shine most brightly at the center of human depravity and evil. This is where we are called to venture, secure in the inner peace that guides us that all will be well, all manner of things will be well. 

I'm in Love with Gabriel: Gay Teen Love Story

Here's a wonderful short gay teen video - in Brazilian Portugese- that warms the heart. A touching story, but bittersweet for the young girl who is in love with the blind boy - who is really in love with Gabriel.

Bradley Manning, Drone Warfare and the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade

One other case I'm following with keen interest is that of Bradley Manning and the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade. Manning was first asked to be an honorary grand marshal of the parade, a decision that was quickly reversed by SF Gay Pride board president, Lisa Williams, in an authoritarian statement redolent of the old days under the Stalinist regime in Moscow. Pravda would be proud. Quite shocking, actually, but the sorry affair has been a blessing of sorts in that its brought a great deal of moral corruption and compromise on the part of the gay movent in general out into the clear light of day.

This issue is quite personal to me because I was born and raised in San Francisco, and marched in a number of gay pride parades in the early days when the event was still an iconoclastic and prophetic gesture that refused to bow to prevalent political and social  pieties. How things have changed.

Thanks to Williams' decision, the great Daniel Ellsburg will now be marching in the parade in support of Bradley Manning. And a great deal of frank, open discussion is now under way, as numerous gay activists and philosophers of note are asking the hard questions. The affair highlights my own misgivings about single issue politics. If there is one single gay issue that compels me heart and soul it is the eradication of the toxic homophobia in the Catholic Church, manifest in the hierarchy's near pathological hatred for the very idea of gay marriage. However, as a general issue, I have misgivings  about the passionate, single focus on this one issue for so many 'liberal' gay activists, and the SF Gay Pride affair perfectly sums up my ow fears.  How far are we willing to go when striving for marriage equality and acceptance? Does it mean meek assimilation and quiet conformity to a prevalent order profoundly unjust to other minority groups, does it entail silence in the face of true evil created by a system and a President who seems to be on "our side," therefore who for that reason deserves our silent acquiescence, our turning the other way. I'm sorry to say that Rachel Madows exemplifies this kind of LGBT liberal to me and I have lost all respect for her.  Bradley Manning, on the other hand, exemplifies the very best of queer heroism, standing up for gay rights and equality while also opposing the evils of a destructive and corrupt military and political system. He has not lost the critical, prophetic edge of the Queer outsider. No house in the suburbs with one's partner and the marriage contract famed on the wall, in exchange for silent conformity to a profoundly unjust  system. Likewise no marching in a parade under the banners of corporate sponsors that include Verizon, complicit in the illegal wiretapping of US citizens, and Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, both banks being sued for mortgage fraud on a grand scale, destroying in the process the lives of countless lower middle class folks. As Glen Greenwald has said in a superb article at the Guardian which I highly recommend,

The minute something even a bit deviant takes place (as defined by standards imposed by America's political and corporate class), even the SF Gay Pride Parade must scamper, capitulate, apologize, and take an oath of fealty to their orthodoxies (we adore the military, the state, and your laws). And, as usual, the largest corporate factions are completely exempt from the strictures and standards applied to the marginalized and powerless. Thus, while Bradley Manning is persona non grata at SF Pride, illegal eavesdropping telecoms, scheming banks, and hedge-fund purveryors of the nation's worst right-wing agitprop are more than welcome.

What we see here is how even many of the most liberal precincts in America are now the leading spokespeople for and loyalists to state power as a result of their loyalty to President Obama.

.... when I wrote several weeks ago about the remarkable shift in public opinion on gay equality, I noted that this development is less significant than it seems because the cause of gay equality poses no real threat to elite factions or to how political and economic power in the US are distributed. If anything, it bolsters those power structures because it completely and harmlessly assimilates a previously excluded group into existing institutions and thus incentivizes them to accommodate those institutions and adopt their mindset. This event illustrates exactly what I meant.

Which brings me back to my first fundamental question. How far are we willing to go in the quest for equality?. As far as Lisa Williams, which is very far indeed, or do we follow the truly principled moral standards of an heroic figure like Bradley Manning, who takes a prophetic stance against injustices across the board, an integrated and inclusive moral stance that refuses to focus solely upon the single issue of the tribe.

From a powerful article on drone warfare at the on line journal, Counterpunch, Jeffrey St. Clair makes
this passionate, incisive remark that expresses my own misgivings about the 'gay liberal' movement in this country.

The president has offered us a master class in political mesmerism, transforming the anti-war Left into supine functionaries of the imperial management team.

The cyber-Left is kept rigidly in line by the architects of liberal opinion. From David Corn to Rachel Maddow, the progressive press acts in sinister harmony with the administration’s neoliberal agenda. They seduously ignore Obama’s constitutional depredations, and instead devote acres of airspace to the faux clashes over sequestration and gay marriage.

Night after night, we are presented with sideshows, what Hitchcock called the McGuffin in his films, the dramatic diversions designed to distract the audience’s attention from the real game being played. Meanwhile, the liberal commentariat is balefully complacent to the rapacity of Obama’s remote control death squadrons, even in the face of somber evidence regarding the drone program’s criminal nature. Raid after raid, kill after kill, ruin after ruin, they remain silent. But their silence only serves to emphasize their complicity, their consciousness of guilt. Their fingers too are stained by distant blood.

In the quest for equality, how are we to react to an ally like President Obama, who, according to the New York Times, runs a kill list that results in the 'accidental' death of a 16  year old US citizen, with no known ties to terrorism other than his relationship to a famous, known terrorist father. His grandfather is on record as saying he was doing all in his power to insulate and protect his grandson from the effects of his father's notorious reputation. But that is not the only issue here. This 'accidental' killing (and I highly doubt there was anything accidental about it), not only took out the 16 year old boy, but also killed his two teenage companions dining at an outdoor cafe, and 8 of the other customers.

Here is a quote on the affair from the just published book by Jeremy Scahill (author of Blackwater)  Dirty Wars: The World's a Battlefield. 

A former senior official in the Obama administration told me that after Abdulrahman’s killing, the president was "surprised and upset and wanted an explanation." The former official, who worked on the targeted killing program, said that according to intelligence and Special Operations officials, the target of the strike was al-Banna, the AQAP propagandist. "We had no idea the kid was there. We were told al-Banna was alone," the former official told me. Once it became clear that the teenager had been killed, he added, military and intelligence officials asserted, "It was a mistake, a bad mistake." However, John Brennan, at the time President Obama’s senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security, "suspected that the kid had been killed intentionally and ordered a review. I don’t know what happened with the review."

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, would not answer questions about the former official’s assertions, saying that she “can’t address specific operational matters and won’t go into our internal deliberations,” adding: "We cannot discuss the sensitive details of specific operations."

But of course, this is only one of the more noticed of such stories and one which attracts comment because the boy was a US citizen. What of the wedding party singled out for a drone attack, the consistent policy of drone operators to 'strike twice,' once at the intended target and once again at the people who rush to the victim's aid. For a comprehensive look at the civilian death toll from the drone attacks (including 11 children killed in a drone attack on a school just one week before the Boston Bombings) check out the very conservative and responsible Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which last February released its report on the estimated number of civilian deaths from these drone attacks.

Glenn Greenwald comments at Salon on the Bureau's disclosures:

On December 30 of last year, ABC News reported on a 16-year-old Pakistani boy, Tariq Khan, who was killed with his 12-year-old cousin when a car in which he was riding was hit with a missile fired by a U.S. drone. As I noted at the time, the report contained this extraordinary passage buried in the middle:

Asked for documentation of Tariq and Waheed’s deaths, Akbar did not provide pictures of the missile strike scene. Virtually none exist, since drones often target people who show up at the scene of an attack.

What made that sentence so amazing was that it basically amounts to a report that the U.S. first kills people with drones, then fires on the rescuers and others who arrive at the scene where the new corpses and injured victims lie.

In a just-released, richly documented report, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, on behalf of the Sunday Times, documents that this is exactly what the U.S. is doing — and worse:

The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of  civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a “targeted, focused effort” that “has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”. . . .

A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.

As I indicated, there have been scattered, mostly buried indications in the American media that drones have been targeting and killing rescuers. As the Bureau put it: “Between May 2009 and June 2011, at least fifteen attacks on rescuers were reported by credible news media, including the New York Times, CNN, Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.” Killing civilians attending the funerals of drone victims is also well-documented by the Bureau’s new report:

Other tactics are also raising concerns.  On June 23 2009 the CIA killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud, a mid-ranking Pakistan Taliban commander. They planned to use his body as bait to hook a larger fish – Baitullah Mehsud, then the notorious leader of the Pakistan Taliban.

“A plan was quickly hatched to strike Baitullah Mehsud when he attended the man’s funeral,” according to Washington Post national security correspondent Joby Warrick, in his recent book The Triple Agent. “True, the commander… happened to be very much alive as the plan took shape. But he would not be for long.”

The CIA duly killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud in a drone strike that killed at least five others. . . .

Up to 5,000 people attended Khwaz Wali Mehsud’s funeral that afternoon, including not only Taliban fighters but many civilians.  US drones struck again, killing up to 83 people.As many as 45 were civilians, among them reportedly ten children and four tribal leaders.

The Bureau quotes several experts stating the obvious: that targeting rescuers and funeral attendees is patently illegal and almost certainly constitutes war crimes:

Read the rest of this expose here at Salon. 

I may seem to have come a long way from the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, but not really. This brief foray into President Obama's drone policy, which Liberation Theologian Leonardo Boff described as"manifestly evil," only highlights my original question. What price equality? Too many liberal gay activists have chosen to remain silent on these issues and many others simply because their hero, President Obama, is on 'their side,' or to put it bluntly, on the side of the Gay Tribe. The choice for many of us concerned for justice for LGBT people is clear. Do we side with the Lisa Williams of this world, and they are legion, or do we take our stand with a true gay hero like Bradley Manning, who does not compromise his  conscience for the sake of a single issue. Given the passionate, spirited and outraged responses now underway about the SF Gay Pride Parade, many of us have made the right choice.