January 29, 2007 at 21:57:40

JASON MILLER INTERVIEWED BY CAROLYN BAKER

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By Carolyn Baker (about the author) Page 3 of 5 page(s)

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My concern for the disenfranchised, down-trodden, suffering, and victimized arises largely from the fact that I have experienced homelessness, discrimination because of my condition, severe emotional pain, addiction, joblessness, and deep loneliness. Fourteen years of strenuous spiritual and intellectual effort have enabled me to reclaim my life and empower myself. While my spiritual evolution has been eclectic and I have not subscribed to the AA program 100%, I have derived a number of personal values from AA. Virtually all of my choices and efforts today, including my writing, publishing, and community activism, flow from my implementation of the Twelfth Step. Having experienced a spiritual awakening, I am determined to continue practicing my principles and to be a light (when my shadow side isn't rearing its ugly head) in this world. Maybe just one tiny flickering candle flame, but a light nonetheless.

6) I'm also curious about why you chose to name your blogspot Thomas Paine's corner and/or Civil Libertarian Blogspot. Obviously, the two names go together, but I'd like to hear more about their compatibility in your mind.

When I started my site, I was just becoming a part of a movement for a more just and humane world (meaning I am much more driven by moral, ethical, and social considerations than by political or ideological ones). At that time I had recently joined the ACLU, which ostensibly exists to defend our inalienable rights delineated in the Constitution to shield us from government tyranny. Hence my URL.

Incidentally, I later parted ways with the ACLU because of their support of corporate personhood.

Thomas Paine was one of history's most strident and influential advocates of human rights, civil liberties, and social justice. His intellectual efforts ultimately led to the death of government by monarchy and the birth of government by constitutional republic.

I think the compatibility of my URL and site name speaks for itself.

7) I am particularly fond of your own writing style because I find your writing clear and often very poignant. It always seems to go right to the heart of the issue about which you are writing. At the same time that it exposes injustice for what it is, I hear a great deal of compassion in your writing as well. Can you say more about this?

I think the clarity, depth, and compassion you note in my writing style simply reflect who I have become out of necessity. In order to come back from the brink of self-destruction, I needed to immerse myself in sobriety, critical thinking, cognitive redirection, fearless self-evaluation, self-awareness, empathy, honesty, taking responsibility, making amends, and various other practices and beliefs which I seriously lacked. What began as a viable alternative to suicide as a means to end my misery has developed into a core way of being.

While I strive for ideals, I realize that as a human being, I will fall short of the mark at times. I need only look at my past as evidence of how far short I can fall. Which is why I am slowly learning to feel at least a degree of compassion even for those who commit egregious crimes. That is not to say that I don't believe in rendering consequences. However, if a person is contrite, pays their dues, and truly evolves, I believe in second chances.

As a side note, I see little or no room for second chances for many of the social, economic, military, and political leaders in the United States who continue to cause great harm with impunity. Their denial, hubris, avarice, and hypocrisy are too ingrained and their crimes are too egregious. Try them, convict them, lock them up, and throw away the key! (For those of you who favor execution, I am sorry but I am opposed to the death penalty).

8) How do you see the world we live in at this moment, with all of its human suffering, injustice, complacency, and all the other issues about which we both write? Please comment on your thoughts on the Iraq War; civil liberties; the state of consciousness, or lack thereof, in the United States; the seeming inability to have clean, honest elections in the U.S.; and the presidential candidate selection process. How do you remain grounded and balanced living in the belly of the beast with so much that is dark and depressing around us?

Human suffering and injustice are inevitable. But that doesn't alleviate us of the responsibility to try to mitigate or minimize them.

Bush waged a war of aggression in Iraq. We hanged the Germans we tried at Nuremberg for the same crime. Why are he and his accomplices still alive? There is no mission to accomplish in Iraq other than the establishment of a sustainable puppet regime to enable the United States to control Iraq's oil reserves. The "insurgents" are resistance fighters attempting to drive out our invading army. There would be plenty of US American "insurgents" and "terrorists" in the United States if India sent an invasionary force of 150,000 to gain control of our fresh water supply.

We have plunged Iraq into a civil war and are responsible for the deaths of over a million Iraqis (going back to the Gulf War and including the 600,000 or so who died as a result of US-driven economic sanctions under Clinton). Devastated infrastructure, death, chaos, genocide, physical and psychological disability, torture, hatred, and an environment contaminated with depleted uranium will be our "proud" legacy in Iraq.

Civil liberties in the United States? There are none that are guaranteed anymore. We lost that "luxury" and it wasn't because of those "evil Islamofascists" who "hate our freedoms"! A civil liberty is a limit on abuse of power by government. Presidential signing statements, the Patriot Act, and the Military Commissions Act serve to eradicate most, if not all, of our civil liberties. Our rights are no longer protected from our government by the rule of law. In just six years Bush and his cohorts have managed to eviscerate the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. And they call GW a failure!

9) Who are some of the people who have influenced you?

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Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. is author of U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You. Her forthcoming book is SACRED DEMISE: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization's Collapse. She also (more...)

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