America: From Freedom to Fascism
A Film by Aaron Russo
Reviewed by Lorraine Jarvi

What’s up? What’s down? What’s real? It’s hard to tell, but it’s even harder to know what to do. Most people are just trying to cope and hoping that life starts making sense again sometime real soon. A few people, though, are determined to speak out on our behalf. Count among those members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, who want a real investigation of the events of that day, as well as those hardy souls daring to speak out about political corruption, unjust war, environmental destruction, peak oil issues, and corporate crimes.

Add to this list of people Aaron Russo, best known for his movies, Trading Places and The Rose, who has turned his considerable film producing skills to making an eye-popping “advomentary” (an advocacy documentary). In America: From Freedom to Fascism, Russo explains how the “twin frauds of 1913”—the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Income Tax—were unconstitutionally perpetrated and have allowed massive power and wealth to accumulate in a few hands, leading to the forfeit of freedoms, inflation and the devaluation of our currency.

America: From Freedom to Fascism is a “Call to Action” in the finest tradition of American heroes and has packed theaters and received standing ovations in all preview showings. It will be shown in Ashland, Oregon at the Britt Ballroom on the campus of SOU on November 4 at 7pm. Mike Green, Ashland author of The Whole Truth About the War on Terror, will give a presentation before the movie. Tickets will be available at Northwest Nature Shop, Soundpeace, and the Music Coop beginning Oct. 16. Visit www.freedomtofascism.com for trailers and movie information.

Rubin’s revelations were confirmed last September when a group of Princeton computer scientists found that the commonly used Diebold AccuVote-TS machine “is vulnerable to a number of extremely serious attacks that undermine the accuracy and credibility of the vote counts it produces.” These scientists created vote-stealing software that can be installed within a minute which can fraudulently change vote counts without being detected (view the 10-minute video at http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/videos.html). The election process for millions of voters is being transformed as electronic voting machines replace older systems. Brave New Ballot describes the systemic imperfections that may have affected past elections and explains what must be done to assure fair elections in the future.

Cohen’s concern is that readers understand the effects TV has on our country. “You say you don’t watch television. You don’t even own a TV. You killed your TV. Here’s news for you: TV is alive and well in your neighbors’ homes. Despite the amazing growth of the Internet, it remains our country’s dominant medium, especially during war, crisis and election. For me, my tenure in TV news was an intense learning experience. For you, the reader, I hope it offers a window into an opinion-shaping medium of unrivaled influence.”

Read this book and share it widely with friends and family who may not realize that, as Studs Terkel explains, “… the willful abdication of the journalist’s power, vaunted purpose, and responsibility in a democracy has harmed us all.”

• How to recognize the miracle in simply walking—not as a means to an end, but as the opportunity to touch the fullness of life.

• Reversing “habit energy” through the unification of body and mind.

• Using walking meditation to work with difficult emotions such as anger and anxiety, and much more.

The Buddhist concept, Apranihita or the spirit of “wishlessness,” is one of neither pursuing desires or fleeing from discomforts. Practitioners from every spiritual tradition can rediscover “our home in the here and now, as the long road we all must walk turns to quiet joy” with the tools offered in Walking Meditation.

Eckhart has observed that more and more people are discovering this state of being he refers to as “the flowering of human consciousness,” which is attainable by anyone at any time. His explanation of how to reach this place by shifting to what he calls an “unconditioned consciousness,” based in awareness rather than thought, helps the listener move beyond a lifetime of limitations into a life based on the truth of our larger Self.

Adyashanti’s unique meditation instruction poses the questions: What would happen if you were to allow everything to be exactly as it is? If you gave up the need for control, and instead embraced the whole of your experience in each moment that arose? In the 14 years that he studied Zen, Adyashanti found that most seasoned meditators had used the practice as a means to a goal they never reached. Ultimately he realized that only when you let go of all techniques—even the concept of yourself as a meditator—will you open to the art of true meditation: dwelling in the natural state. True Meditation offers the opportunity to reclaim the original purpose of meditation as a gateway to “the objectless freedom of being.”

Adyashanti explains: “We’ve been taught that awakening is difficult, that to wake up from the illusion of separation takes years. But all it really takes is a willingness to look into the depths of your experience here and now.

“Awakening is a fundamental shift of identity out of the personality, out of the mind—the identity that is lodged in thought and mind and memory and “me-ness.” True awakening is when identity shifts out of that “me-ness.” What it shifts into is something that has no form—whether we call it awareness or consciousness or spirit, it’s more important where the identity shifts out of than how we label what it shifts into.

“There are viewpoints that awakening is sudden and total, and there are schools of gradual awakening. In my experience, both occur. For some people the awakening out of their personal identity is going to happen all at once and instantly. For others, it sort of creeps up on them until at some point they notice they are no longer exclusively identified with their ‘me-ness,’ their personality. It can really run the gamut on how the awakening displays itself. Most of us feel pretty ordinary, and if we have this conscious or unconscious belief that enlightenment is rare—that it’s for only very extraordinary people—it totally contradicts our experience because we’re not extraordinary, most of us, and we feel very ordinary, and we don’t feel like rare chosen people. And so this idea, it is one of the, if not the most powerful impediment to awakening. We have images of the awake being, and they are all sort of halo-enshrouded, with long hair, wearing flowing gowns. And if they are doing anything in life they’re always teaching, and they always have disciples, and people falling at their feet. These images are out there, and yet it’s simply not so. It’s very hard for our minds to get that enlightenment can look like your grandmother, or the grocer. Enlightenment doesn’t need to look in any way extraordinary.”