Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Carter the Peacemaker
I was a teenager in the 1960's. We baby-boomers were coming of age during that troubled decade, wanting to experience life to the fullest extent possible, and yet being drafted into an Asian war.
In the midst of all that noise and confusion, a president was assassinated; another president felt so troubled that he chose not to seek a second term. Another president was driven out of office after his criminal activity was exposed and prosecuted. Another president was appointed instead of being elected. Gerald Ford was a decent guy; he served well as caretaker of the Oval office and this nation, until the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976.
America was crying out for stability, for decency, for honesty and integrity. Jimmy Carter stepped into the Oval office as a man of sincere faith and honesty, just when we needed a leader who could call for the anchor of integrity to be cast into the troubled waters of the 1970's.
President Carter was a true evangelical Christian; he was not afraid to speak, boldly, his testimony of faith, even to an interviewer from the nation's most widely circulated girlie magazine.
Carter literally fulfilled the Christ-mandated role of Peacemaker. Having invited Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, he guided them into a peace agreement that lasted for a while, until other leaders later fell again into the quagmire of bellicose behavior.
In his last address to the nation, President Carter explained:
"The struggle for human rights over-rides all differences of color, or nation or language. Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity, and who suffer for the sake of justice - they are the patriots of this cause. I believe with all my heart that America must always stand for these basic human rights, at home and abroad. That is both our history and our destiny."
As President Carter's term was expiring, his strenuous efforts to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis resulted in a last minute release that was completed as his successor, President Reagan, accepted the mantle of Presidency.
In post-Presidency retirement, Jimmy Carter put his old tool belt on again and returned to building houses for people who needed them.
Carter's Habitat for HumanityPresident Jimmy Carter was an outspoken Christian, a patriot, and a Nobel laureate. But more importantly, he was a true Peacemaker in the sense of that word that Christ had spoken in his sermon on the mount, Matthew 25.
During his time at the nation's helm, he worked earnestly to manifest, for every American, the privileges of our collective citizenship: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Today, the last day of 2024, I reflect on the legacy of Jimmy Carter, who passed from this life two days ago. He was a hundred years old. Now he enters the Heavenly realm, being led by the carpenter from Galilee who conquered death. I look forward to meeting brother Jimmy Carter when Jesus Christ accepts me, likewise, into our eternal home.
King of Soul
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Leonard, oh Dear Leonard
I was a university student in 1971 when Maureen and I were walking on campus one night talking about political and cultural stuff of that era.
Maureen was a rather butchy gal who hung out with our little campus network of hippie wannabees and campus rebels.
We had just seen a documentary flick that presented a very negative view of Nixon.
As we were walking out into a dark night, she told me not to do anything rash. That was one thing I remember she said. The other thing I remember she said was, "Leonard Cohen is down!" . . . which is to say, if you're feeling "down" and you want some music appropriate to your state of mind, listen to Leonard.
I hardly knew anything about Leonard at the time. But apparently she did. She was from New York, y'know. . . the eastern center of the media universe. But she had also been to Los Angeles, the western center of the media universe.
Since that time, I have spent five and half decades living a wonderful life. In 1977, I became a follower of Jesus. In 1980, I became a husband. In 1981 I became a father.
Becoming a Christian, a husband and a father changed everything.
All along the watchtower of those years of us boomers growing up, we've all gone our separate ways.
Most notable among our musical stars were the Beach Boys, Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Crosby Still Nash and Young. After my born again experience came Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith. Rich Mullens.
In the late 1990's I was fascinated with Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which I called the earliest rock music.
Along the background sound tracks of my many years, I have appreciated a diverse string of so many incredible symphonies, songs and concerts that covered a multiplicity of influences and geniuses.
Now, in 2024, I find myself amazed at Leonard, a rather oddball songwriter who has, at the sunset of his life and his life's work, presented an international blockbuster hit! There he was all along, plugging away; he never had a chart-topping hit - "Suzanne" was the closest - but who suddenly took the musical world by storm with his song "Hallelujah!" All the principal singers of our time have lately covered Leonard's "Hallelujah."
Considering Leonard's life opus and his last-act victory with that amazing song, "Hallelujah" I stand amazed.
I've been reading the Bible seriously for 54 years. It is a collection of historical, spiritual and evangelical documents that extend back in time for, I guess, four of five thousand years.
When I ponder Leonard's profound Hallelujah treatise, I see the quintessential, historic Jew who, like King David, put the Lord to the test, and who, like Jacob, wrestles with God.
There is something very special - absolutely unique to Leonard himself, going on in his song. Yet the song is also indicative of the ancient Jewish dialogue with YWHW Creator of the universe.
Leonard hardly made a dent in the history of baby boomer music, but he sure came through in the end with this blockbuster hit: Hallelujah!
I am amazed at the impact Leonard's Hallelujah! has made in the superstructure of popular music. Leonard, in cahoots with his YWHW Lord, has taken the song-world by storm.
He has made his life-exit like the King David of psalm/song. In "Hallelujah" he expresses it in this final verse:
"I've done my best. It wasn't much. I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch.I didn't come here just to fool you (his audience). And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand right here before the Lord of song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!
Hear Maestro Andre Rieu with his JStraus orchestra and singers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRY2tAlvtZ0
Leonard in London, 2009 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q
King of Soul
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Bethlehem
It was about 2700 years ago that an ancient Hebrew prophet, Micah, spoke prophetically to his people about a Messiah who would be born into their midst.
Several centuries later, a child was born in Bethlehem whose life and life’s work and wise teaching changed the world.
In the biblical book attributed to the prophet Micah, he prophesied:
“But you, Bethlehem . . . though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come one who will be ruler over Israel.”
The child whose birth was foretold was Jesus. During his lifetime, his role as king was rejected by the leaders in Israel. His messianic/prophetic role was judged illegitimate by the important Hebrews who were ruling Palestine in cahoots with their overlords, the Roman occupiers.
However, a small band of disciples gathered around Jesus during the years that he lived, taught, and performed miracles.
The biblical accounts of Jesus’ teachings, the historical records of his miracles. . . and his suffering a criminal death before being raised from death. . . were later documented in the Bible.
The biblical account of Jesus’ birth, life, death and Resurrection can be found in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
If you can believe the gospel writers, then you are a person whose faith has been completed by the birth, life, death, resurrection and salvation of Jesus Christ.
In every Christmas season, Jesus’ miraculous birth in Bethlehem is recalled and celebrated all around the world.
Bethlehem is a fascinating place; We visited the city when we were in Israel, four years ago. We entered the church that is traditionally thought to be the spot where Jesus was born.
Having been raised Catholic, I was not surprised by my visit to the Church of the Nativity. it is, visually and spiritually, an ecclesiastical wonder, a tribute to the majesty of the King of Kings.
Bethlehem was a pleasant city; the merchants are helpful and eager to sell their wares, which included fine clothing that we Americans do not typically wear, although the merchants were eager to amend our yankee clothing prefaces by draping their fine garb over our shoulders.
As Americans, however, we were quite aware that we were strangers in a strange land. We weren’t in Kansas any more, or Baltimore, or Charlotte. . .
As we were leaving Bethlehem, we encountered a few features of Bethlehem that revealed just how different the place is from say, Charlotte.
Crossing what appeared to be the main street, we heard some gun shots from somewhere not far away. We did not know what was happening, but one member of our small group became quite resolute about scooting away from there, getting out of Dodge, so to speak.
So it seems Peace on Earth is not exactly the order of the day in Bethlehem.
I mean, it is on. . .you know, the West Bank.
Nothing wrong with the West Bank, of course. But most of the Jewish citizens live in Tel Aviv, or in some kibbutz, or Jerusalem. The West Bank is understood to be pretty much Arab territory.
Driving back to Jerusalem on the main highway, we noticed that the Jewish settlement we saw from afar was completely enclosed by a high wall, with elaborate security hardware roundabout.
I’m not complaining or criticizing; Israel is what it is. But I do know that all these Israelis—be they Jew or Muslim—are men and women who were saved—if they are willing to accept it— by the Prophet who had been born in Bethlehem. . . who lived, taught and performed miracles for three years before being crucified to death and raised back to life on the third day.
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Surviving Death
Two men in human history crossed the death line and then returned to life. The first, a man named Lazarus, was dead in a tomb, when Jesus called him back into life.
The second, Jesus, having been tortured to death on a Roman cross, walked out of his tomb, returned to life and spent 40 days with his disciples before being taken up into the eternal realm of everlasting life.
I’m going with Him!
There are only two man in history who died and then lived to tell about it. There was Lazarus, who is my predecessor in eternal life. He survived death because Jesus called him.
After 73 years on this earth, and noticing that my body ain’t what it usee to be. I’m on long slide downhill into the cold, cold ground.
But the real person that I am, my spirit, will survive bodily death when I am called to eternal life by Jesus the (one and only) Christ.
In all of human history, only one man died and then lived to tell about it.
In 1977, Jesus gave me an opportunity to join him—when my “time” comes—in eternity. No great person in history—no president, no general, no prophet, nor priest has the power to open that door for me.
Jesus is the only one having power over our ultimate enemy—death.
I’m going with him.
How about you?
I'm going with him.
The way I imagine it, in a vision like Jacob's, he'll drop a ladder from on high and I'll climb up from my little hole in the ground and join Jesus, with His millions of followers.
What say ye? Can you believe it? What do you have to lose?. . .your little covered-up hole in the ground? your box of ashes?
King of Soul
King of Soul
Thursday, December 5, 2024
The Least of These
There is only one man who ever lived in history and died, but then, conquered death by rising from the grave: Jesus Christ.
Here is a parable. . . a part of his life-message that reveals what is right and what is wrong in this life. From the ancient book of his disciple, Matthew, chapter 25, we find:
When the Son of Man returns in his glory. . . All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Then He will say to those on his right, "Come . . .inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
" I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in. . . naked, and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to visit with me."
Then the righteous Christians will answer Him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink?"
"And when did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothed you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to visit you?"
"The Son of Man will answer and say to them, . . . to whatever extent that you did it to one of these, the least of these people of mine, you did it to me!"
So we see that the Lord did not deport them, but He had mercy, and gave them a chance to begin a new life.
In the here and now of American history, we find that this great nation was founded upon the belief that all men are due a second chance at getting this thing called life. . . right! So send us your tired, your weary, your huddled masses yearning to be free!
Don't deport! Support! those huddled masses yearning to be free. This is what America is all about.
King of Soul
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Dick and Jane Doe
Dick and Jane have their piece of the world at the corner of Elm street and Smith avenue. Their eight-tenths of an acre homestead features a garage door on the left, at the terminus of their driveway.
The Does' front door is in the middle of their home's front;, on the right side is a bedroom window.
Inside they have a kitchen, a dining room, a living room and a bedroom, a stairway and two bedrooms upstairs.
Their yard is well-kept; the two cars are clean and well-maintained.
Dick's 40-hour gig is at the widget factory, seven miles away, near betlway exit 17 which says "Pleasant Valley." Jane serves as substitute teacher at nearby McWillie elementary school, where Johnny, Sally and Edith are enrolled.
They watch network TV at night. On weekends Dick likes pro football on weekends, a smattering of baseball in summertime. At night they watch sitcoms and dramas on flixnet an amazon.
Dick and Jane their nose to the grindstone and their hands on the wheel of American fortune that supplies their needs. They don't much about the supply chain that brings such bounty to their domain. They're not hip to the latest and greatest tunes turning up and down and over and out on the net or the web or the x or the faceblot.
They've not thought much about natural resources that grown in Amazon jungles. What they do know is that Amazon delivers stuff to them once a week or so on the doorstep, and on most evenings via the web and the net.
So they don't keep track of carbon emissions, or rainforests in the actual Amazon river basin, or the tribes of people who live there. They are not privy to the tokenisation of the natural world or the global carbon market or satellite surveillance or predatory institutions or the wall street casino or the buying and selling of carbon blahblahs for the sake of putting a tether on global warming or climate change or whatever we're calling it these days. They're not linked into the technocracy or blackrock or the AI underclass or the silicon overlords. They're perfectly content with our new-feudalism, or what ever the wizards of academia are calling it nowadays. They use social media platforms on their phones to stay in touch with Aunt Matilda and Uncle Joe and cousins Luke and Lucy.
Deep fakes mean nothing to them; they live in the real world.
No deep fakes for them. They are grounded in common sense, a mortgage, car payments and media networks for unwinding at night.
The analogue future is not on their radar. They have no use for a sentient chatbot or cryptocurrency or stable coins or programmable CVDCs.
They can remember, back in the day, hearing about, learning about the robber barons of old and the gold rush in California and then World War I, the roaring '20's, crash of '29, The Depression and then the World War II and the D-day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge and the horror of Auschwitz and then Hiroshima/Nagasaki and then, and then. . .
The golden age of the '50's when Dick and Jane were growing up with Howdy Doody and Lassie and Buffalo Bill and Romper Room, Ozzie and Harriet and Walt Disney and then Johnny Carson and what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and then. . . and then. . . I forget what happened after that. Give me a minute.
To hear a song about all this stuff, listen:
Boomer's Choice
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Banana/maga Republic
Sitting around the extended family table during Thanksgiving-tide, discussions somehow degenerated to subjects that were dangerously close to politics.
I made the mistake of mentioning to an in-law relative that our Republic was delivered from insurrectionary disaster by one brave Vice President.
The defender of our Constitution was, on January 6, 2021, Mike Pence.
Now it is popularly believed that trump chose Pence as his VP in 2020 because it was a favorable political arrangement. . . a Republican ticket led by a bad boy, but with a good boy strung along just to keep things decent.
In our little confab around the big table, one member responded to my comment about Mike Pence with a statement that the Capitol police had set barricades aside so that the the crowd could enter the building.
Say what? She must have watched the edited/redacted video versions that had been presented, a year or so ago, by some GOP guppy who was fishing for excuses about the insurrection, or maybe by some foxy video editor whose mission was to spoil the vines of public journalism.
The videos I had seen, supplemented by hours and hours of testimony from the House Jan6 Committee enquiry - those videos were a visual testimony that the attackers at the Capitol had not gathered for a walk in the park, or a stride up the steps, or a stroll through the halls . . .
. . . but rather that: the attackers had intended to obstruct justice, through violence and unlawful disruption, by terminating the count of Electoral vote. The tallying of those Electoral votes was a duty of Congress that had been planned in the founding documents of our democratic republic, Constitutionally mandated - to be conducted by the Vice President of the United States.
Mike Pence did his job that day. JD Vance, read 'em and vpleep.
But I digress. So I learned my lesson yesterday evening:
For a peaceful thanksgiving with extended family, don't talk politics.
But I do harken back to the bountiful heritage of Thanksgiving: we can still be thankful for our United States of America, even if is, in 2025, being transformed into a banana-maga republic.
I do like bananas, with a little peanut butter. Reminds me of that good ole boy peanut farmer from Georgia, Jimmy Carter.
Where's Jimmy when we need him? But I know where Jimmy is now, because he was, as I am, born again.
I am glad that this life on earth is not the whole deal. We who are born again have far more beautiful and righteous home awaiting us in the heavenly realms.
I am Thankful for that! Thank God for eternal life, proven historically by the man from Galilee who was executed on a cross and then, three days later, lived to tell about it.
King of Soul
Sunday, November 24, 2024
The New Song
In the midst of our first snowfall of the season, a visitor stopped by at the window, to provide the first hint of yuletide color.
I thought of the words that Jesus had spoken long ago:
"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."
So I was pleased to serve as an instrument of God's will by providing seedpods, which they crack open with their beaks and then pluck for food.
I am grateful to the Lord, who created the bird, and provided an abundance of resources so that I could feed the bird and so that I can, and have been for 43 years, providing for the family that the Lord birthed, through Pat, to me and her.
But shortly before that album and our union in marriage, many years ago, the Lord provided for me resources and opportunities to compose and record, on vinyl LP, a record of original and traditional songs sung for the glory of the Lord who was born in Bethlehem long ago.
Revelation 5:9The message sent out on those vinyl grooves concluded with the phrase, "and they sang a new song, saying,"
"Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for you were slain, and purchased for God, with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation."
. . . which is to say, Jesus "purchased" all persons on earth who are willing to join Him instead of hooking up with the pricipalities and powers and wise guys and deceivers and magamaniacs who think they are in charge of this world. How about you? Perhaps some day you'll join us.
You can hear the song here: Revelation 5:9
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
The Henry and the donald
Henry VIII was the tyrant king of England from 1509 until 1547. He was a MEGA king. (Make England Go Awry)
Anybody who got in his way, he just pushed them aside and did whatever he wanted to do. He was a misoginyst. His first wife, Catherine gave birth to a bunch of daughters. But those future queens did not match his expectations, so he ditched Catherine and hooked up with another consort, Anne. But there was a clusterfud of complications surrounding that switcheroo. There was a problem with his desire for her, because scripture (this was a time when the MAGAs of that day were pseudo-religious). . . scripture forbade him to ditch Catherine and marry his brother's wife. He wanted the pope to annul his marriage to Catherine but the pope wouldn't go along with it. So in order to grant himself legitimacy, Henry forced his MAPA (Make a pope go away) lawyers to recognize him as blahblah head of the church of England instead of the pope, and just to make it plain who was in charge he conjured up a MEGA attack to get them to trash their ages-old religious legacy and replace it with MEGA (Make England Go Awry) abd ditch the fuddy-duddy pope and the church's old-school biblical rules. So the MEGAmaniacs stormed the steps of religious tradition and the halls of English Law; thus Henry was able to ditch Catherine and get himself hooked up with Anne. But she birthed girls too. . . a disappointment that intensified Henry's institutional assaults, which actually turned out to be all for naught anyway. Anne's daughter Lizzie was on the throne for sixty years, a rein of such longevity that it was not surpassed until her namesake, Elizabeth II reigned for an even longer period in the 20th century.
Now I don't know but I been old that history doesn't repeat but it rhymes, and I think that's what we detect here in these modern times.
In distant America, Henry's orange-headed monarchical stepchild, king donald of MarLago, conjured up legal and so-called evangelical psuedo-religious manipulations and insurrections to summon up a MAGA (Make America Go Awry) insurrection and trash the 14th amendment so he could put his fat ass back on the oval throne again.
So we see that history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Capitol barricades falling down, falling down, Capitol bridges falling down, MAGA breaky.
Glass half-Full
Monday, November 18, 2024
The F***ing of America
In 1959, when I was in 4th grade, the teacher accused me, falsely, of scribbling the F-word on the boys’ bathroom wall.
I was offended that she would point at me because I was a good kid and would never do such a thing. To this day, I do not know who the profane scribbler was, but I did, at the time, suspect my classmate, Johnny whatshisname.
Perhaps that traumatic experience is why, to this day, I am offended whenever I hear the F-word. And that’s just about everywhere.
Today, as my wife and were taking our daily stroll on our hometown greenway, I heard the dreaded word uttered by a passerby who was conversing with someone.
It still perplexes me that the obscene F-word is now used in normal speech by seemingly decent people.
This is a little bit like the “like” phenom, which is, although less offensive, has always bothered. Another common phrase that hear on the greenway and in many other places, including TV shows and online gabbers.
You know what I’m talking about. You probably hear it every day:
“I’m like. . .—“
The phrase would certainly be useful if the speaker was saying, “I’m like a normal person looking at my phone… etcetera etcetera. . . that is to say, the word is used as a conjunction in an English sentence. (I was a useless English major at LSU) They let me get out of there with some parchment upon which was printed, “BS, General Studies.”
But I digress. I was railing about the F-word. My sensitivity was pushed over the edge of alarm when, today, I heard brother Frankie, one of my contemporary post-evangelical brothers in Christ, use the F-word. n
I mean, if bro Frankie used it, I suppose it’s now a given that the F-word is just part of the vernacular.
I mean, it used to be a stand-in for “damn” as in “I don’t give a damn!”
But nowadays you hear: “I don’t give a f***.”
My mercy toward my fellow English-speakers is now reaching full acceptance of the change that has taken place during my 73 years on this earth. So I’ll just go aheaad and write it: I don’t care, any more, what the f****ing say. I don’t give a damn.
MAGAmania has taken over he country anyway. Now that my madness is settling into aged reticence, I will simply keep my madness to myself and plead with my fellow Americans:
MAKA! Make America Kind again.
King of Soul
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Red America
Red America
Red America was never about to submit to a liberal Democratic agenda. I should have seen it coming.
Even though their candidate was an insurrectionist lawbreaker!
Hell, my deep South lawyer cousin compared the insurrection to "tossing tea in the harbor!"
Made me wonder. . . how many people lost their lives at the Boston Tea Party? Probably not as many as the five or six who lost their lives in the assault against our Congress and our Capitol. It seemed to me that the Jan6 insurrection was more like firing shots at Fort Sumter. Sure as you're born, 't'was no stroll in the park, no stroll from the Ellipse to Collapse of Capitol security.
But now that the dust has settled and the American people have again spoken through the smokescreen of their ballots, I am starting to understand the cold, hard facts. The magamaniacs were never going to afford sympathy, nor support, for the likes of folks who wanted to get sex change operations, or even play around with their organs as if there were no difference between the standing one and the receiving one, and then when a young'un did start to be thumping around down there in the uterul regions somewhere. . . they wanted to snuff it out? Well, shut my mouth!
But now the dust settles and we find ourselves with the chief insurrectionist on a legal path to taking charge of the powers that be… like Jefferson Davis come back from the dead?
Go figure. . . never would have thought it my lifetime.
I mean, I grew up down here, south of mason-dixon, and have seen from time to time license plates with a rebel caricature and declaration, "The South shall rise again."
Maybe the south did win the civil war after all. Hell I don't know. What does Nov5th show?!
In order to cope with these developments, I am inclined to ponder the message of a prophet of ancient times. So I'll close with these words from Jeremiah, and wait for the next shoe to drop:
"Righteous are You, O Lord; but I would plead my case with you: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease? . . . Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard; they have trampled down my field; they have made my pleasant field a desolate wilderness."Or maybe I can just offer this: . . . MAKA. Make America Kind Again. Can we just give it a try? Glass half-Full
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
MAKA
Make America Kind Again.
There is a very old book that has served many Americans, for a very long time, as a source of wisdom and inspiration. The Bible was divided, long ago, into two main testaments.
In the Old Testament, Jeremiah had spoken to his people with these words:
“If you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place . . .”
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ said this:
“I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, and you invited me in, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
His disciples, puzzled at these words, asked for a clarification.
He answered them, explainging that whenever they had done such acts for any stranger, it was the same as if they had done it for him.
Now, not everybody reads the Bible. I understand that. But in our American history, any accurate study will reveal the influence of that good book in our hundreds-years-old society.
In this day and time, it is indeed time to get back to our heritage of kindness, acceptance, tolerance, and good will toward all humans.
Our New York Harbor includes the Statue of Liberty. The sight of that gigantor icon has been presented, for a very long time, to millions of immigrants who set their course for the United States of America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
While our nation has historically benefited from the sundry civilizations of many immigrants, a foundational principle of Liberty and Justice for All was established long ago. As a child of the 1950's, I pledged allegiance, every morning before classes started, to that flag representing Freedom and Justice for All.
Our British forebears played a major role in the diverse development of our United States. One Brit in particular, Sir Paul McCartney sang these words on an old LP record:
“Someone’s knocking at the door; somebody’s ringing the bell. Do me a favor, open the door and let ‘em ing.”Our immigrant forefathers were not pet-eating “trash.” Neither are the seekers of today’s immigrant populations. Songwriter Neil Diamond had a good understanding on this immigration situation:
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Here’s an excerpt from Smoke, my 2014 novel of the Classic genre.
The year is 1937. A young American businessman is traveling through France, in a roundabout route to visit the grave of his father who had never returned from the the Belgian battlegrounds of 1918.
In chapter 14, Philip finds himself a guest at the dining table of an hospitable French family, near Strasbourg, close to the German border. Philip is on a journey in which he accompanies two sisters who have fled from Germany. The girls have escaped the third reich while their brother, Heinrich, is still imprisoned on a concentration camp called Dachau.
In dinner table conversation, the French hosts are speaking forthrightly, with urgency, to the girls and their parents. This excerpt is lifted from page 161 of Smoke:
Cartier looked directly into the man’s face, then at his wife. “You do need to stay nearby until Heinrich is released, or at least until you have heard some definite news, or until this whole damned Nazi thing blows over.” Henri Leblanc then spoke excitedly, “The Third Reich is not going to go away! They will inflict their German hatefulness on Jews and some others as long as they can! They will not stop until they are forced to stop. Hitler and Goebbels have railed against the Jews since the beginning, even since ’33. It was their intention all along to rob you of your business and then run you out of Germany. But our leaders, Petain or — we need another Clemenceau, or Poincare, maybe that young man, DeGaulle — somebody needs to rise up and intervene la-bas. Ever since Hitler waltzed into the Saar last year, with no resistance whatsoever from us, those Nazi brutes who salute and follow his every command without question have been frothing at the mouth to run the Jews out of Germany. That is what the Gestapo is assigned to do, and the Third Reich will not cease its campaign against the Jews — especially the prosperous ones such as you.” “But do not despair!” said Henri’s wife. “You have come to the right place. We can help you. We’ll give you sanctuary as long as we can.”novel by Carey Rowland set in Europe, 1937 That was a fictional scene based upon historic fact. For the complete story of 1937 told, read Smoke.
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
The Good News
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are those who have persecuted for the sake of righteousness; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil because of faith in Christ.
I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;
and whoever says to his brother, ‘you are good for nothing’ is guilty, and whoever says ‘you fool’ is guilty as hell.
Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at church, or wherever, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, go and, first, be reconciled with that person; then go and present your offering.
Make friends with quickly with your opponent at law, while you are with him or her on the way, so that your opponent will not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown in prison.
You have heard that it was said: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
Do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
You have heard it said, “love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who give you a bad time.
Most important of all: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
King of Soul
Monday, November 4, 2024
Democracy and the Republic
Our nation is a hybrid, and has been from the beginning. This is why we have always had, as we still do, Democrats and Republicans.
Our United States of America was conceived in 1781, At that time, our leaders convened in Philadelphia to write a Constitution.
From that time onward, even until now, we have been double-minded nation.
The concepts upon which our Constitution was founded originated about 2700 years ago in ancient Greece. On that Mediterranean peninsula, a civilizing population elected their leaders by voting. They called it Democracy.
But also during those ancient times, a philosopher named Plato wrote a document describing a way of governance called the Republic.
Much has been written, over two millennia of time, about these foundational principles.
But democracy and the republican idea had gotten buried in the ashes of history as Europe was governed and managed for two thousand years by kings and priests. That’s what today is called authoritarianism. Maybe we have outgrown that; maybe we have not. We’ll know soon enough how all plays out.
Leap now to the 17th-century, in a period of time called the Enlightenment, and we find a recovery of those two ancient concepts of governance: Democracy and the Republic.
When America was being settled and “civilized” by Europeans, 1500-1800 AD, these resurrected ideas were brought forth as a basis of constructing a government that would leave monarchy in the dust of American history, and replace it with a government of We the People.
In 1791, when our patriots and founders began writing our Constitution, our leaders—you’ve heard their names—Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, George Washington et al—
were struggling between these two ancient foundational concepts, Democratic and Republic.
Surely you have noticed that, today, and (as I write this) tomorrow, we are still divided, peacefully, between Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats generally want all the people to be involved in all levels and phases of government.
Republicans seem to prefer appointing leadership to people who are well-endowed and have a lot of assets to work with.
Democrats seem to prefer keeping governance at the humblest levels of society, so that those who are rich and famous don’t take control of everything.
Tomorrow, November 5, 2024—or more likely the day after that—we shall see who wins the latest round of Democrats v. Republicans.
And I might as well disclose. . . I am a registered Republican who has already voted for a bunch of Democrats.
Whatever happens, I say. . . God bless America, land that I love!
Saturday, November 2, 2024
CapitolWord Address
Four years and several episodes ago our People brought forth, within this nation, a new administration, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal.
Now we are gathering in a new civil election, testing whether this nation, so conceived in Constitutional Law, can still endure.
We are met on a great media field. We are approaching a new election, in which we hope to re-dedicate ourselves to the principles upon which this nation was founded: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, under the covering of a Constitution that assures all of us equal rights and privileges in the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity.
We stand now, election-ready, to re-affirm that every duly-registered voter in this nation is assured the right to vote and the assurance that their vote will be correctly counted, and to have those voter-affirmed state-majorities correctly tabulated and reflected in their legislative assemblies, with Electoral Votes to be determined by those state legislatures and properly delivered to Congress for tabulation, as our Constituion requires.
Reflecting now upon this history, we remember that four years ago. . .
American defenders of our Capitol and our Constitution died in defence of our Constitution, our sacred liberty, and the heritage of our American life, individually and collectively.
And so, now, we re-assemble to collect our votes and to tabulate them honestly, without deceit and without prejudice, with malice toward none and goodwill for all. Now, for those who, four years ago during the violent assault of our Capitol, had given their last full measure of devotion to our Justice. . . And for those generations of Americans yet to come, we gather to vote and to be assured that our votes and their future votes will be properly and legally tabulated, according to the good will and integrity of duly-appointed local officials.
These principles and hopes we resolve, so that liberty and justice for all shall not perish from the earth.
And yet, and yet, in the ill wind that now blows . . . as foxes conspire to spoil the vines of our Liberty, we renew our resolve to work toward electoral integrity and Justice . . . even as dark clouds of obstruction and deceit congregate on the horizon.
And so we ponder the words of Shakespeare's Romeo (interpreted here for our present context , and published in this dramatic moment of impending contention):
". . . for mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in chads, shall bitterly begin with this election's rebels"
Whatever happens, let us re-dedicate ourselves to the preservation of Liberty and Justice for all. Go out and vote, and pay attention to what happens in the wake of our 2024 election.
Glass half-Full
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Rhymes in Times
I don’t know but I been told
we been here since days of old.
I’ve heard tales of a long-ago roamer
whose Aegean sagas were told by Homer.
Verses of Israel came through Solomon.
History leaves tracks as stories seem to follow men.
Animated fables were told by Aesop
forerunners of twentieth century bebop.
Early sports reporting came through Pindar
like stadium snacks now served by the vendor.
Roman rhymes came through Virgil;
Euro heroes leaped o’er every hurtle.
Beowulf came along with tale of Grendl
which now you can read about on any Kindle.
If you think I’m stretching lines to make a rhyme
It’s because my rhymes are only worth a dime
As Arlo had sung he don’t want a pickle
He just wanna ride on his motor-cicle.
My rhymes here detected the Daily Caller.
for which I wouldn’t give a greenback dollar
But as usual I regress
So to my silly rhymes I will address
Cuz Joyce said God could make a tree
but poems were writ by fools like me.
Now this here rhyme rant started
when my overloaded brain farted
I’m not making this up
I’m going to make sure this poetic cup
fills up; y’all listen up!
I was trying to find an historical rhyme
about our situation now and the one back in time
When the Senate Committee to investigate
heard testimony about the break-in at Watergate.
T’was a crime commissioned by tricky Dick Nixon
When he enlisted some burglars for political fixin’
But the Senate committee investigated the crime;
Then that dirty tricks crew did their time
Now we see a similar crime that got investigated
When the January sixth rebels were interrogated.
They’d been trying to steal the election
with a trump-instigated insurrection.
But later, when the dust had settled
Our US House put pedal to metal
to convene, by House committee in session
and administer investigative detection.
So the special House Jan6 interviews
reminded me of that old Watergate news
and Senator Sam with his Carolina drawl.
Please, ye Americans remember the history, y’all!
But this it time ’t’was conducted by Rep Benny
as they conducted enquiries, so many.
Now our 2024 election’s next Tuesday
I hope the American. people remember past days
when a President learned the hard way that crime don’t pay
Then those Watergate crimes were discovered
Now like those tricky Dick treasons that got uncovered
We have a new strain of lawbreaking discovered.
With such a critical election only six days away
we must condemn that insurrectionist fray
I urge you to vote against that January sixth mob
cuz to maintain our Republic is the People’s job
Don’t let him back in—chief insurrectionst trump
but choose Harris and Kick donnie out on his rump!
Friday, October 25, 2024
The Second Beasting
this poem written with appreciation for W B Yeats’ earlier poem, the Second Coming:
Streaming and scheming in the widening web
The viewer cannot trust the site
People drift apart; the real world is not told
Mere vanity is used for show
The magamania is loosed, in every here and there
the counterfeit of propriety is launched
Insurrectionists lack all legitimacy, while citizens
are puzzled in gaming irrelevance.
Now foul destruction falls upon the world;
it’s Vlad’s constant invasion’s by design.
This second time around, a Crimean re-run now resounds
While distant memory of Sudetenland confounds
Troubling our sight, somewhere in the Euro lands
a shape with swastika’d sleeve and moustach’d beast
in salute as rudely crude as third reich brood
is thrust on newly-armored legions, while all below it
reel shadows of indignant Euro birds.
The darkness descends again, and now we fear
that nine decades of stony slumber,
now are vexed to nightmare by a KGB rumbler
And what beast, its undead claws now released,
slouches toward Ukraine to rip it torn from Euro peace?
Glass half-Full
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Listen, Americans, and I shall tell ya
of the hero who stopped a maga rebellion
On the sixth of January, 2021:
He swung a. gavel, not a gun.
Many a citizen, still alive
still remembers that deep dive
into treasonous mad rebellion
by a herd of magamaniac hellions.
But there was one brave man who stopped the show,
While rioters shouted go, go go!
VP Mike said NO NO NO.
That's not the way it's done.
No, not by the power of the gun
Nor by the force of insurrection.
We will not go in that direction!
The Joker had drummed up their maga ire;
it burned hot like confederate fire:
a zombie contrivance of the old rebel yell
a twisted revival for slavery's hell!
As the war drums pounded in Congressional halls
Traitors sent out their insurrection calls.
Gallows for VP Pence were erected outside
while the joker stoked madness in the maddening tide
as if Mike's honor depended on the joker's plot
while insurrectionists drummed up a fury so hot!
But when Security led our Congress to safe places
those traitorous gamblers lost all their aces.
So they danced around for awhile liked they owned the place
but really they were drumming up a great disgrace.
But Mike Pence knew
as the American people did too
't'was the witch of Endor, a maga staffer
say'in' the trump shall be prez hereafter!
But Mike Pence knew
as the American people did too
that their votes, being counted
would show the insurrectionists routed,
far, far away to the hovels of maga-land
where their rocky rebellion would sink in the sand.
And so, while Mike was escorted to a safe place
far below the riot, away from the maga rats' race,
His aides sought counsel in desperate prayer
as Mike's family huddled in the hovel downstairs,
Advisors Marc and Greg sought wisdom in Scriptures
as, floors above, insurrectionists ripped their riptures
slashing here and destroying there
having for our Congress not a care
holding no respect for Constitution,
nor reverence for our lawful institutions.
But after many hours of terror and destruction
Our Metro and Capitol Police ended that obstruction.
In the wee hours of Jan7 morning
after the riotous Jan6 storming,
Congress re-convened to count Electoral votes,
thus restoring our American electoral hopes.
They counted the Electoral votes;
thus defeating the insurrectionist dopes.
On the 7th of January, 1921
Mike swung his gavel, not a gun.
Many a citizen, still alive
still remembers that deep dive
into treasonous mad rebellion
by a herd of magamaniac hellions.
But Mike saved the day
by upending the fray
swinging his gavel in Lawful duty
while magas clung to their trumpian booty.
But for their booty I wouldn't give you a dime
'cuz our Constitution prevails, time after time.
And I told them that!
said Amos to Andy as they sat.
Listen, Americans, and you shall hear
how Mike Pence saved our Republic, so dear!
Go to Dome, directly to the dome.
Do not pass go; do not collect dollars
Go complain to your Daily Callers!
We like calling America home,
while magas wail and insurrectionists roam.
Go on! skeedaddle!
We don't want your magamania battle!
Glass half-Full
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Insurrection Indictment
Read this selection from Article 2 of our US Constitution:
"The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates (from the State Legislatures), and the votes shall be counted. The person having greatest Number of Votes shall be the President."
This is the Constitutional Law that donald trump broke when he gathered a crowd of people to obstruct our Vice President's performance of duty to count votes from the State Legislators.
That was in January of 2021.
The administration of Justice in our country takes place in Courts of Law. In the Insurrection case now being prosecuted in Federal Court, Prosecutor Jack Smith was required by the US Supreme Court to clarify what crimes were committed by donald trump in his capacity as a candidate, thus separating his actions as a candidate from his actions performed as chief executive of the US. It's a legal technicality.
Prosecutor Jack Smith's document identifying trump's offenses is a "superceding indictment." It is 2000 pages long, as every detail of trump's acts and every detail of the laws broken, is laid out for Judge Chutkan, and the jury, to see.
As former federal prosecuter Glenn Kirschner has explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgBkBYVcx3k on his Justice Matters podcast:
"Most pages are almost completely redacted (names and other information not appropriate for general public). The printed pages reveal transcripts from the grand jury investigation, notes from FBI interviews conducted during years-long investigation, such as donald trump's "find votes" phone call to Georgia Secretary of State, photos of some fake "elector certificates" that were falsely presented as legitimate by the trump conspirators, and Vice President Mike Pence's letter to Congress explaining why he chose to do his Constitutional duty as President of the Senate, instead of playing along with trump's criminal conspiracy.
Why am I writing this to you? As a citizen of our United States of America, one of the millions of We the People, I consider it my duty to remind my fellow-citizens of these important issues surrounding the election of 2020, but perhaps more importantly, the election of 2024.
Lastly, looking back into our history: At the start of our separation from Britain in 1775. . .As one revolutionary American citizen had signaled, near Boston, to another citizen who stood in the tower of the Old North Church. . . "one if by land, two if by sea."
So do i signal to you, now, this reminder of what is happening in our Federal Court that should prove trump's role as chief insurrectionist of the assault on our Congress and our Capitol on January 6, 2021. . . and render him therefore not eligible to be voted, again, the Chief exective.
Here's my signal from this old 2024 church person, who stands within the watchtower of dutiful citizens' observation: We must not appoint the chief insurrectionist as Chief Executive!
Glass half-Full
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Time and Time Again
First there is Time; then there is time again.
The most obvious thing about Time is that it is happening right now.
I don't know what you are doing at this moment. But I do know what I am doing. I am sitting in my living room, with brilliant sunshine streaming in as it passes through the millions of autumn leaves, green and gold and brown, that hang in the hundred or so forest trees on our mountainside here in the Blue Ridge.
Please string along with me for this moment of reflection. Our house, built on the sloped edge of a small mountain in the Blue Ridge, was not damaged when Helene blasted her way through western North Carolina. But there is something about catastrophic events that prompts a composed response on the keyboard, an offering up of literary sacrifice… what used to be called literature, to commemorate the event that changed the lives of people in a thousand Blue Ridge households.
So now, here I peck away at the keyboard.
A chronicler of my age cannot resist the urge, after such a whirlwind, to peck out a few thoughts about life and the challenges thereof.
So. . . here I sit in the golden, indoor sunshine, listening to Classical WDAV, 89.9 FM streaming out of Davidson North Carolina.
Suddenly I was hearing one of my old favorites - an orchestral concerto that was first heard in baroque Venice about 300 years ago.
As if by magic, the golden glamour of afternoon sunlight streaming through golden leaves, accompanied by the sound of Vivaldi's "Autumn" concerto, transported me to - not a different time and place; I am still here in my home in 2024 - but to a different frame of mind.
I had a notion to find my old CD player and listen to all four of Vivaldi's Four Seasons concertos, which is what streams through my ears and brain as I write this.
I feel a strange fascination, cranking up that CD player, a device that I have not laid eyes on in many a year. Like I mentioned in the title above. . . Time, and time again. . . cranking up an obsolete device to listen to a musical masterpiece that will never be obsolete. Put that thought in your glass and sip it.
All this self-entertainment because the internet is down after Helene blew it away, Imagine that! When the newfangled stuff fails, the old tech gets retrieved from the closet for a spin down memory lane.
So I take leave of our Blue Ridge Mountain homestead, intending to drive the four miles to the Boone Library for Wi-fi, to post this reflective moment on the world wide web, so you folks out there in cyberspace will catch feeling about Helene, or autumn in the Blue Ridge, or the passing of time . .
But guess what ! You just never know what little glitch will get spun into your path. I had to change a flat on the old Subaru before spinning my way to the Library to post the blog. Then, by that time, the library was closing, so I had to duck into Josiah's Venture wine and chocolate shop on King Street, to get to the Wi-fi. This time of day I'm not into the Local Lion coffee gathering place.
No problem. A glass of Cabernet and its a good day for posting a blog about Time, memory, and recovery in the aftermath of what was - for hundreds of people in my region - a cataclysm that totally rearranged their lives. But not mine. I'm just happy to be alive, still able to appreciate the sunshine through home windows, and a beautiful place to live, on an autumn day in the Appalachian mountains.
Glass half-Full
Saturday, October 12, 2024
The Ballad of Brett and Blasey
Listen to an ole song I composed, back in 2018, when the Senate Judiciary Committee was blazin' through a Supreme Court nomination:
You can hear it sung, home style,
here:
Here's the story:
Lindsay and Mitchie were gettin kinda itchy just to leave the Judiciary behind. . . Chuck and his committee, workin' for the ditty, trying to get Brett's nomination on time. . . On Committee fence Jeff Flake sat, cuz victims' rantings knocked him flat. Lindsay and Mitchey, still a pushin' forward in the Senate. . . you know where's that at . . . And no one's getting tweet 'xcept Blasey Ford!
Lindsey said to Grassley we need to go fastly just to push this nomination on through. Let's go fast; but Flake said to Grassley we just cant pass it until we truly know what to do. On Committee fence Jeff Flake sat, cuz elevator tirades knocked him flat. Lindsey and Mitchey still a-pushin' forward in the Senate you know where that's at, and no one's gettin tweet 'xcept Blasey Ford.
When Blasey was in high school, accosted by a drunk fool (she said it was the nominee). In committee testifying: implied the nominee be lyin' and stop his nomination immediately! 'cuz he was talkin' crazy back in school days! She said he had accosted, in a drunken haze.
Lindsey and Mitchie still a-pushin' forward in the Senate. You know where that's at. . .and no one's gettin' tweet 'xcept Blasey Ford.
Ah, Ole school, Senate rules; smart fools; America drools. The escalating hype is so strong! Ah, tweet up, face up; everything is hype-up, to make drama, and drama prolong.
Now here come, y'know, a last minute surprise: Jeff proposed a compromise!
Lindsey and Mitchie still pushin' forward in the Senate; y'know where that's at. And no one's gettin' tweet 'xcept Blasey Ford.
Ah. . . broke, busted and Blasey can't be trusted. Mitichie wants to go to the floor. Diane can't take it; she says she'll have to shake it; we knew she'd wanna shut that door.
Slidin' on procedures and rules. Y'know it's low-ball; but politics is old-school! Blasey's 'criminations and sad accusations can't go on indefinitely.
And Brett's nomination is becoming a reality!
Glass half-Full
Friday, October 11, 2024
Court a Lot
While touring the JFK Library at UMass yesterday
I snapped a pic of President Kennedy, long past.
Now watching news of more recent yesterday
I detected ’tween then and now a stark contrast.
And so on this bright and sunny Boston day
I revise an old show tune to elephants and ass:
A song, to be sung to the tune of “Camelot”,
as sung by Richard Harris in the 1967 movie of the same name:
A law was made a distant moon ago here:
Civil War rebellions must not burn too hot,
and there’s a legal limit to the rebels here
in Court, a lot.
Yes, here in Chutkan’s court we shall see Justice
as prosecutor’s case reveals a lot
in evidence of the joker’s private plot here
in Court: a lot.
We see the wheat set apart from chaff here
as official duties fade behind a private plot
‘cuz a President has no business breaking laws here
in Court, a lot.
Supremes had made an order in their Court here:
As Merlin’s magic likewise had begot:
Immunity’s woven from whole cloth here
in Court, a lot.
So go ask Jack to make a list here
to separate official acts from those that are not
Cuz there’s legal limit to trump’s plot here
in Court a lot.
So Jack got busy in his task here
of culling private acts from those that are not
depending on who was called to smear
our Rule of Law, in Jan6 riots, so hot.
No President ought our Constitution smear
whether in private or official, he should not
but if Jack must spell it out so clear here
We believe he’ll give it all he’s got:
One hundred eighty special pages here,
of private acts on January 6th, so hot!
Insurrectionary gangs from far and near
having no official duties, so they fought!
Against our Capitol and DC police here
Where violence and killing ought be not
Cuz a Law was made a distant moon ago here
in Court a Lot!
Glass half-Full
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Shutout at the Jan6 Corral
“There must be some way back into here” said the trumpster to the thief, whilst sitting in his oval hovel, whining and dining, pretending to be a Winner. But truth be told, now according to the People of the United States he was no winner, but rather. . . a loser, not what he presumed himself to be, no, no winner at all. . . but rather no more than a mere sinner. . . a loser who had been told by the people of the United States, “You’re Fired.”
So now he had appointed himself to be the Chief Insurrectionist.
Back in the day . . . on the jersey shore, it was . . . constructing tall towers high up into the sky, having them erected to a certain lofty point . . . and then stiffing the contractors, perfecting the fine art of having an ace up his sleeve, and a tangled web to weave as then he had purposed to deceive.
But now, January 6, fateful day, the great game robbery, wherein the trumpster had drawn his Chance card. And it said, Go to hell, go directly to Losers’ hell. Do not pass go Do not collect even two dollars. Yet there he sat at the the pinnacle of power, sitting in the oval, commanding his minions of huliaani, while sidney hung towels out to dry in the beaten by ’n by, cuz the devil went down to Georgia looking for some votes to steal; but he couldn’t find any so he played his desperate wild card, except it didn’t do the trick—they couldn’t make the charges stick, so he ended up calling the peach state guv, with a desperado angling cast for 11,780 fishy wishes.
Oh, but lamentable day. . . t’was all sound and fury signifying nothing, so he rounded up his proud toys and his oathweepers and this three deceptors and he sicced them onto the Dome. He sent ‘em into the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. . . yessirree, he did, he cut ‘em loose at the rotunda to bust glass with a 2x4
and to make thunder under the Rotunda and to the desecrate the sacred halls and to profanitize the walls and to fall upon the House ushers with putrid fountains of profanities while firing up the ire of the Vanities, until, in the unsweetened by ’n by, one man put a stop to it.
One man, driven down into the depths of Capitol subterranean sub-State blue, said. . . wait for it! “I’m not getting in that car!”
Even as Daniel of old, back in Babylon had said to ole King Neb, “I’m not bowing down to that entitled idol, so had Hoosier Mike said to his lackeys, “I’m not getting in that car!”
And the rest is history.
Glass half-Full
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Let Justice Roll on!
Let Justice roll down like the waters, and what is right, as a mighty stream!:
A stream of information, revealing, in detail, to the American people, what obstructions donald trump attempted to foist on the American people on January 6, 2021. . .
A filing by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, released now by Judge Tonya Chutkan in the DC Circuit Court, alleging the former president’s attempt to corrupt the President of the Senate, Mike Pence, to convince the President of the Senate to forsake the counting of Electoral Votes that had been presented to Congress by the Electoral College, an electoral process established in Article II of our Constitution.
Now is the time for all men and women to come to the awareness of our Constitutionally-prescribed process by which our nation, properly and legally, elects our leaders, specifically in this case, the President of the United States.
In the last Presidential election, the (incumbent at that time) president launched a vast conspiracy to steal the election. The scheme, the conspiracy to steal that election is revealed, in detail, by the 180-page filing that Prosecutor Smith has submitted to the Court for judgement to determine the guilt, or innocence, of donald trump.
Forget all the noise of election-year politics. Forget the antics of the magamaniacs to divert attention to irrelevant stories that have nothing to do with our civic duty to, legally and legitimately elect a President who will perform his duties for the benefit of the American people.
Let the foxes try to steal the vines of public media, but pay attention to our Justice Department and the DC Circuit Court, gaveled in and out by Judge Tonya Chutkan.
Let Justice roll down like the waters, and what is right, as a mighty stream!
Glass half-Full
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
New Day: 100 years!
So I was sitting here in my northwest North Carolina home, on a forested mountainside with sun shining through tall trees. (Thank God for trees!) Awakening from a good night’s sleep, sun shining in, I walked my way downstairs, cranked up the generator and called it (the beginning of) a day, another day of post-storm recovery, here in the Blue Ridge.
Having survived the storm, having gotten through, as John Lennon had sung, another “day in the life.” I ascended our little stairway to heaven on earth . . . found my way upstairs and, as as Paul McCartney had sung it back in the day, “drank a cup” of yesterday’s coffee.
So far, so good. With electrons now flowing through the temporary power setup, I tuned into NPR and heard a radio presentation about former President Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 today. Being a writer, I couldn’t resist the idea to reflect on the life that has transpired since good ole boy Jimmy took the helm after the disaster course our nation had traversed after the adventures of post-Watergate America: Nixon in, then Nixon out, Ford in and then, and then, wait for it, Jimmy Carter in.
For this born’n’bred southerner, the news of Carter in the Oval was like a breath of fresh air. I understand that, four years later, when Reagan achieved that office, the Republicans called in “morning in America.”
Because, y’know, all the Watergate and post Watergate blah blah had blown over. Yeah, I know, he was the guy who arrested protesters back in California and now he was in charge of the whole kit’n’kaboodle.
Ok. So life goes on. I get it. But as Carter was, as Gladys Knight had sung it, taking the “midnight train” (back to) Georgia and Reagan was taking the helm, it just so happened that we were in an international crisis, because the Iranians were holding 444 Americans hostage in the American embassy in Tehran. (or was it 444 days that they had been held?) Anyway. . . I mean, those Iranians are still making trouble. . . but that’s another wild goose chase through time. (Don’t go there.)
As I was saying. . .Just as Carter was leaving and Reagan was taking the mantle of Presidency, I assembled some friends and had them accompany me to sing this song, which I called “December ’79”.
Actually the song was more about the ancient rivalry between the Jews and the Arabs in the middle east, but I used the moment in time to make a statement about how events in the ancient lands reflect an arc of history, and an ark of deliverance for those of mankind who are willing to turn to the Almighty to get through life, instead of just, you know, slogging through on their own strength. So I named the song “December ’79,” but just a few years ago I renamed it “We’ve Got a Song to Sing.” The message therein is based upon the state of grace that Jimmy Carter had spoken of when he talked about being “born again,” which phrase had been lifted from chapter 3 of the biblical book of John, where a wise man Nicodemus was drawing wisdom from the Well as he was conversing with Jesus.
Remembering Carter today on his 100th birthday, I decided to toss up this old song that I had recorded, “with a little help from me friends,” back in the day. If you care to listen, you can hear it on:
“We got a Song to Sing"
http://www.careyrowland.com
Thursday, September 26, 2024
The Waste Klan
As September is the month of falling
let us go then, you and I
let us venture forth and assess the mauling
and see what predicament we shall spy.
We find members cauterized upon a fable
and members fleeing from beneath the Dome
as gavels go silent, rendered unable
to find their way back home,
rendering Rule of Law unstable
'cuz the joker had said to the thief
There must be some way to force 'em outa here
Thus the members were driven into grief
while insurrectionists matastasized the fear.
Our Constitution, formerly consecrated,
they smashed to bits and pieces;
our Rule of Law they desecrated
as if it were their stinkin' feces.
And so the People were forced to go
reeling, fleeing, like herded cattle
so magas could put on their shit show
to claim fleeting victory for their battle
Meanwhile up at the podium
where the boar and the wolf were high on the hog
the air was foul with odium.
As they damned our legislative river into a bog.
Yeah they came from the Right they said;
trump pumped them up at the Ellipse.
They blamed it on antifa instead,
while insurrectionists did back flips.
"Our maga, which art in maga";
Maga be thy name!"
while the elephant's tail ceased to waga
pud'n tane; ask me again 'n ill tell ya the same.
So the loud din of the disconsulate chimera
they cranked up in that formerly holy space
casting maga spell in their imposed maga era
with the maga winning the race,
As for Law . . . they care not a wit
Legality's gone the way of the buffalo
As for Constitution they care not a twit,
Take this Law and stuffit low.
Nosiree!, no Law here in this twittering wind
Send out the call on X!
"Stop the steal" stole over and over again
as they swore and they cast up their hex.
With "Stop the steal", they stole the show.
Yeah, "stand-back"s went raging far and wide
as "stand-by''s raged to and fro.
Senators had no place to hide;
Reps lay low while "stand-bys" did go
until Capitol/Metro police turned the tide.
America cried: No! No! No!
We the People cried Woe! Woe! Whoa!.
While the rabble babbled
Rule of Law came falling down, falling down
Yeah, the rabble unraveled
Rule of Law is going down, going down
"There must be some way out of here" said the Lawbreaker to the thief!
As Americans were stricken with grief.
The magas thiught it a beautiful shit show.
But the American people still come and go
speaking of their grief and woe.
Oh! lamentable day!
That is all I have to say.
Read 'em and weep.
I pray the Lord our nation to keep.
Glass half-Full
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Jacob's Letter
Listen, my people, and you shall know
how Mike and Jacob stopped the rebel show.
Now I don't know but I been told.
Some folks get wise when they get old.
And I think we all old enough to know
how Mike and Jacob and their Very imPortant team
stopped the insurrection and restored the American dream!
(Some names changed to protect the decent)
When I was seventy, it was a very bad year.
It was a very bad year for red-blooded boys
who charged up those stairs, with all those mis-led dares.
And they came undone, when I was seventy-one.
Yeah, I hear ye, here, it was a revelatory year
When the committee got, a plan to uncover the plot
of the red-blooded boys who charged up those stairs
with all their prideful dares and stand-by dares.
But it was a better year, when Committee convened to hear
from barrister Jacob Grebbs, after the insurrection dregs.
Now I don't know but I been told: Ole Daniel prayed, in days of old.
And he said to Ole king Neb: You, mister Prez, have made a decree
that every tom dick and harry and dick and jane and robert e lee
who shall stand back and stand by on the appointed day
shall be summoned to brand new elliptical insurrectional fray
when all shall be called to bear the turd of the lard
and fling them hard with shards on the cap'tal yard.
But Jacob helped to stop the insurrection's scheme
as he was an aide-de-camp on VP Pence's team.
When Mike and his crew got shuffled away
Jacob chose the Ole Daniel way; he did pray, the Daniel way.
He sho-nuff won't gonna get work'd up in that trump'd-up fray
He sho-nuff won't gonna bow down in the trump'd down way.
Then later, when he was revealing what had happened in the Cap deep down
He said Mike wouldn't let the drivers drive him down and outa town.
Listen, my people, and you shall know
how Mike and Jacob stopped the rebel show.
Now I don't know but I been told.
Some folks get wise when they get old.
And I think we all old enough to know
how Mike and Jacob and their Very imPortant team
stopped the insurrection and restored the American dream!
Glass half-Full
Thursday, September 19, 2024
History Repeating Itself
from chapter 19 of King of Soul:
But the contest of harmony and invention was playing out far beyond the scripted staffs of musical history, and presenting consequences more grave than the mere listening pleasure of audiences.
Still to be found in the world today was the ongoing contest of order against chaos.
Here's the ever-present duel between right and wrong; there's the Establishment beating back dissidents, with frequent sightings of the powers that be as they take advantage of the powerless who want to be. And we shan't neglect to mention the plight of them who think they should be running the show, being perpetually put down by them that are in charge of it.
And here we learn we do have words that must be said; yet we have words that should never be spoken; but someone will pronounce those words sooner or later. Yes, we do encounter in this life lines in the sand that daren't be crossed, and prohibitions that beg to be violated; we find rules that must be broken, and sometimes we encounter the terrible contests of convention vs. contention.
And sometimes we discern, in our times, history repeating itself. In chapter 12 of Smoke, we find an old Frenchman, riding in a train car through the French countryside in the darkness of a 1937 night. He speaks frankly to the young American, Philip, whom has just met:
"Believe me, I have watched this all my life, since before the war, when the Germans occupied it. Now they have taken it again - without firing a shot. Big mistake. My home is in Nancy, just down the road from the Saar and all that. I have watched it happen, and I have wept for France, and for all that is good and decent, which is now to be dragged down into Rhine mud by these Huns and their Bolshevik cousins, who are no better. Lenin and his blasphemous revolutionaries sold the Czar out to Germany in 1917, and they will do it again, unwittingly, no matter what they say. Stalin will kill off his best generals out of jealousy and paranoia before they can be sent to defeat the arrogant Prussian menace. That is what the document - the one you have apprehended, Stalin's foolish purge of his own household - that is what you have in your possession, and need to give to me, because I know what to do with it. Now the formerly fearless Russian bear has become a common murderer, enclosed in the ring to fight to the death the German savage."So we discern that history, some times, repeats itself, but with a different set of actors. As hitler had used Germans in Sudetanland as an excuse to attack Czechoslovakia in 1939, so does, even now, the little putin Russian use the presence of ethnic Russians in Donbas to attack Ukraine. The world goes round and round and where it stops nobody knows. For those who are old enough to remember, or literate enough to have trodden the paths of history, they may discern that history repeats itself, with a different cast of characters in each epoch. What's a man to do, but read 'em and weep! Smoke
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Boomer Verses
Along the watchtower
in that most destructive hour
the watchman reports a disturbance
a most extreme perturbance
like no other ever seen before
since the waters stirred
upon the shores of time
maybe something worth a dime
no, but like the smothering
of electrons, protons, neutrons recovering
yeah I say unto thee
cuz my advice is free:
them atoms in the great winepress of the world
all along Hiroshima they got unfurled
the uncurling of the world
the unsacking of Nagasaki.
so far, so far from Hackensackee
There must be some way outa here!
said the boomer to doomer.
“If you miss the train I’m on
you will know that I am gone.”
Just sit and watch the tube a while:
At the inception “500 miles, from Alamagordo
World’s first Destroyer’s breakthrough
500 miles from where Destroyer of worlds
first first laid out his plan unfurled.
“. . .but I digress”
said the networks to the press.
through a sixth-floor window it flew: phase two.
And that’s the way it was, November twenty-two
What’s it to you? said the captain to the crew.
Then six years, six million tears, another fuse:
when the Memphis blues sung out the news
from that Lorraine balcony, a terrible thing:
the execution of Doctor King!
He said Let Justice roll down like the waters
as the ancient prophet and the potter
with his vessel upon the wheel
spinning strong in lets make a deal.
But who sentenced the prophet to death?
musta been on confederate meth.
Meanwhile back at the ranch
we unload the next tranche.
Before it gets gone, send it to Saigon
so the American dream goes on and on.
Who’da thought Nixon would be the one
with Henry’s help make Saigon get gone.
Who’da thunk it that a peanut guy from Plains
would dig up plan to rearrange
the flood of crud that watergate poured out
and hold the fort ’til the 444 got let out
from Tehran trouble and ayatollah clout.
It’s morning in America and whoopdee doo!
Must be some way out and what’s it to you?
But hey! “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall!”
was worth the strain and pain of it all!
What’s even higher is our shining city on a hill . . .
but then a Manhattan mourning that started, still,
came crashing down in 911 emergency
from unexpected terror insurgency.
There must be some way outa here.
Kick the machine into high gear.
Grumblings here and rumblings there
Theories queries here there everywhere
From babel to scrablle to kabul
from dachau to moscow to what now?
Yeah but I say unto thee:
Behold the One upon a tree
raised high for all the world to see.
For Dick and Hane and you and me.
but only ’til that first day morn.
I got waterfront in babble I’ll sell you
said the choker to the forlorn
and ripe with blimpty empty porn.
Still it all comes back to me:
that same hard truth I see.
In all of history there is but One
who plucked out that fatal thorn
that big question mark we all death
obscured by human brain on meth.
So no matter what you say.
I be going with him on that fateful day
when last I catch my breath
upon that crooked turn that we call death.
I’m going with Him.
We’ll rise again!
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Now its up to you to toke it.
King of Soul
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About Me
- careyrowland
- I love Pat, my wife. I love my son, Micah. I love my daughter, Kim. I love my daughter, Katie. I believe Jesus conquered death.