Greg Hartnett

Most people think it is impossible to change our government, yet they fail to remember that they are the government. The government is simply an extension of the people, serving the implicit and explicit wishes of the populace. Our daily lives have the most to do with the situation of the world. If we can change our daily lives, we can change our governments and we can change the world.

Nourish awareness and compassion will follow.

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, whose wings are still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope,
the rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly
metamorphosing on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird which, when spring comes,
arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who,
approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old-girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man
who has to pay his “debt of blood” to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom,
my pain is like a river of tears,
so full it fills up the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are but one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, 1976

The censoring of the super secret DVD hack that was published earlier in the day has gotten Digg users in an absolute uproar. In fact, the backlash has gotten so severe that the homepage of Digg is swarmed with anti-Digg censoring stories.  Snapshot here.

I wrote not too long ago that the top users have jumped ship - will this be the straw that sends the rest of the users packing?   The revolt is actually humorous - reminds me of the temper tantrums my 5 year old throws.

How do you deal with the crowd once it’s turned on you?

Also interesting to note is that the number of stories submitted by top users continues to decline.  See the Friends’ Activity in the previous screenshot.