Carbon

In phase 8 of the universal creation, Creator summoned all the Elements together in order to give them purpose and function. Hydrogen stepped up quickly, so Creator designated him as #1. Then Helium came in and obtained #2. Lithium stepped up for the #3 spot; then Beryllium took #4, and Boron #5. The #6 spot was assigned to Carbon, and the rest is elementary history. Hundreds of thousands of years later, probably millions later, a certain writer, Carey, noticed some interesting characteristics about Carbon that he thought might be worthy of mention in the world wide web of information. . . interesting stuff to ponder. His early ventures into the wikiwatchee wild world of wonders brought him to an understanding that all the elements, all 103 of them, were grouped into catagories of valence. Valence is the power of any particular element to combine with other elements and entities. As luck and numbers would have it, carbon came in at the top of Group 14 in the elemental pecking order. Not a bad place to be, actually. . . as the great mandela of life and death on earth whirled through the ages, carbon was an activist, repeatedly getting involved all kinds of creational and evolutionary projects. Later when men started to figure stuff out, they found that carbon had played a highly constructive role in all kinds of projects. The evidence of carbon’s activism was left behind in limestone, dolomite, graphite, even diamonds!. Organic projects brought forth peat, methane, coal, natural gas, oil. . . did somebody say oil? Well, that’s the big one— the one that humans made best use for awhile, for a very long time. Initially, after discovery of oil’s many uses, they used it for fires to stay warm, later to heat up metals, such as copper and iron, silver and gold, for tools and precious trinkets. . . jewelry, religious ceremonies, all kinds of uses for carboniferous substances. A couple of centuries ago, men started using carboniferous fuels to power motors for industrial development, power generation and transportation.

What we later found out was that a lot of those carbon emissions from oil, gas and coal were wafting up into our atmosphere and wandering around with nothing to do except make trouble. They began to protest their degenerated lot in life, even though they had ended up at the highest levels. Together, they constituted a kind of atmospheric shield that tended to trap heat in the earth atmosphere instead of letting it escape into space where it belonged. Long about the year 2000, a vice president of the United States ran for president, but he lost. I won’t go into all the gorey details, but let’s just say. . . hanging chads and a scaliafied high court diverted his destiny from the white house to the high position of operating as counsel for the defense of the Planet and all the People and critters who live therein. Then a wide array of citizens’ activism opened up on behalf of the people and the planet, and those folks have been a good influence. The auto-manufactures figured out that we need catalytic converters to minimize those carbon atoms from wafting up into our atmosphere. And I think—at least I hope—that some of the power companies and co-ops have made efforts to minimize their carbon emissions. Now I haven’t really heard much about this lately, but I was practicing my ABC’s that I had learned in kindergaten, which I do every day when I read anything. . . and I thought about carbon, because. . . I don’t know, maybe because my name and “carbon” have the same three letters. At age 75, I’m closer now than I was before to that moment when my soul ascends upward

past earth, past the atmosphere, into the eternal realm where the Creator, the Lord, came down in His human identity. . . and suffered death so that he could overcome it, thereby demonstrating that you and I could overcome it if. . . if we are willing to go with Him. All will be well when I get past this earth and the carbons are all settled back down in the earth where they belong. Just sayin’. Glass half-Full

Those Russians

I entered this American world during a period of contention between the two primary nations who were arguing about who would be in charge of the post-WW2 western world. The funny that happened on the way to my early childhood was that American leaders were having about argument about who set the course for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Europe. The Russians, commanded by Josef Stalin, were quite confident that it was their destiny to guide the recovering Europeans to a brave new world of communism. On the other hand, we Americans knew that it was our great post-war task to help the Europeans reconstruct, along paths of democratic and republican leadership. So there was this big worldwide controversy going on between us and the Russians, which was being acted out in the German lands where they were trying to rebuild that hitler and his third reich goons had turned into a disaster zone. Our President, Harry Truman, who had approved the use of the atom bomb in Japan, was doing the truly American thing. . . restoring peace and tranquility, everywhere he could, on both sides of the Atlantic. But on the other side of the Atlantic the Russians were getting all paranoid about us, because they thought we were out to get them. But we could care less about the Russians, because we were Americans, listening to daily news, watching America work itself back to peace an prosperity. But on the other side of the Atlantic, Stalin and his communist goons were trying to convert the ashes of Europe into a communist state, just like Karl Marx had predicted, about a century and half earlier. Conveniently enough, however, dictator Stalin died in 1953. Thank God! Then the Soviet politburo selected Nikita Kruschev to run the USSR. I have a childhood memory of a film clip of him standing at a podium somewhere blathering: “We will bury you!” Looking back on it, it’s like: Dude, what is your problem?! But they never did. Of course not. The Russians had some growing up to do. They had to learn how to evaluate their communist ways that their parents had left behind. It took them a while. They had to go through stages to get through their creepy, alienating ways of doing things. Berlin, the divided city in northeast Germany turned out to be their failed experiment in communist governance. President Kennedy had visited Berlin in the early ’60’s, when he rallied the west Berliners toward some capitalistic/democratic/republican considerations. He spoke to the Berliners; but he was also speaking to the wider world, when he said: “Let them come to Berlin!” thereby challenging the citizens of the world to go to Berlin, where they would see the difference between the Russian way of administering reconstruction and our American way of promoting liberty and justice for all. About 20 years later, President Reagan went to Berlin and launched, like star wars, the controversy to another level. He said: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” He was referring to the Berlin wall, but in a broader sense, he was implying: Tear down your communist bullsh**! Well, long story short, eventually the Russians got the message; they saw the writing on the wall; in perestroika, they began working toward a better system. After a while, a master technocrat bully, Vlad the Mad, wrestled control of the post-Soviet state. Under the guise of free market scenario, he opened the door for wise guys who knew how to manipulate to channels of power and wealth to take over and run the country. And he would supervise the evolution of communist bureaucracy to a kind of authoritarian hegemony, where the strong survive and prosper and everybody else learns to sink or swim in the brave new world of post-communist Putinism.

To be fair, I’ll mention that we Americans had a similar transition period, after the civil war. . . there was a time when the so-called robber barons were running the show of recovery from our post-civil war USA. Under Putin, the Russians are having their era of post-Soviet reconstruction and he seems to be opening the door for his robber baron buddies to assist him in running Russia. We shall see how that works. Maybe one day, Vlad the Mad will figure out that he doesn’t need to enslave the Ukrainians, where Russia began! . . . just to keep his fat ’n happy oligarchs running the show in Russia. And as Amos said to Andy, back in the day: “And I told him that!” Somebody needs to tell Vlad to lighten up. Smile, you’re on the world camera.Lighten up! Glass half-Full

Those Germans

I suppose it is my personal history that prompts this exploration of European history.Born Catholic, now Christian (alias protestant). With 75 years behind, I explore histories of what has happened in this world before I arrived in it. So I was pondering the Berlin crisis, a major European conflict. It started when the communist Russians, having secured northern Germany when the Allies defeated the third reich, divided Berlin, and built a wall through the city to keep their subjugated Germans from moving over to the western side of the town, the democratic/capitalist side of town, where they might escape Russian control. Venturing further into this topic, what I discerned was, this occupation of Germany was a very unusual development in history. It only happened because a cultified wildman took hold of the German state. The little dictator with the funny moustache was able to establish the third reich because they had gotten such a raw deal after the Versailles peace conference after the first big war of the 20th century. That raw deal, as far with the French were concerned, was a punishment that the Germans deserved after the near-total destruction of Europe after World War one, after the archduke of Austria had been shot in 1914. But the rest of the story, going back in time, is that those Germans were always a rebelious people, as compared to their European neighbors. I mean their restlessness had begun back in the 1500’s, when they divided Europe. They took it upon themselves to interpret the sacred scriptures for themselves, after Gutenberg invented the printing press and Luther was pointing out that the catholic superstate in Rome had not been getting the full message of the gospel distributed to common folk, because the Catholic church was too entangled in religion, cathedral-building, lifting golden chalices in grand cathedrals. . . instead of truly preaching the whole gospel. There was a lot more, you see, to that message of Jesus, assured by his Word and Resurrection . . . a lot more to it than rituals and cathedrals with awesome architecture that seemed to tower up to the heavens, especially if you were inside looking up. I mean, Luther and the Germans had a good point about religion. So. . . a rich German prince, educated enough to see what was really happening, and having wealth and resources enough to do something about it, protected Luther, defended him, and as the ire of the pope was getting hotter and hotter, the German strong man made a break, a permanant break in more ways than one. Long story short: out came what they called the Holy Roman Empire. So Frederick the Great became the first “Holy Roman Emperor”. Now, looking back on it, I think that newly-forged empire must have been what was later called the first reich. And the second reich must have been the one that the German princes, royals and electors established with German kaisers leading them from age to age. . . until Kaiser Wilhelm violated his sacred oaths in 1941 and started a world war because an Austrian archduke was shot in Sarajevo. And so. . . a few decades later, the the “third reich” was the one that hitler dragged into destruction when he launched his nazis and his luftwaffe and his clueless good germans into a third reich disaster that terminated in 1945. After that, the two strongest victors, Russia and the United States, still standing after world war two, divided Berlin. After that, the paranoid Russian communists, who had not yet figured out the fallacy of communism, divided Berlin, and allowed US Americans to take the western half and occupy it on behalf of the free world.

Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for liberating northern Germany from hitler’s third reich. We didn’t like your communism and your powermongering, but we appreciate it what your Russian soldiers did to stop the nazis and thereby provoked hitler into shooting himself in the head in Berlin. The last thing I remember, doc, we slid into Berlin, and the sound of a shot in Dallas in 1963. . . and President Reagan came in twenty years later and said: “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And they did. The rest is history. The next thing I remember hearing about Germany was that the Beatles were singing in Hamburg. Talk about an improving state of affairs! Glass half-Full

Time

From that moment in 1963 when the school principal stepped into our seventh grade classroom. . . informing us of the assassination of President Kennedy, the tragedy of this life has lingered in the back of my mind. . . Our generation was insulated from real danger; we didn’t have to be shipped off to Europe, like many of our fathers did, to rid the world of nazi destruction, death and holocaust. Even so, the paranoia of our leaders re communist aggression provoked an over-reaction. So. . . many of us were shipped off to Vietnam to stop the communist insurgency. Eventually, our leaders decided that the effort was a waste of time, equipment and American lives. Long ago, the Psalmist left this observation: “The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.” Things haven’t really changed much, except for the invention of the nuclear bomb. . . ‘nuff said about that. Be careful, all ye world leaders! Don’t do anything stupid. But I digress. On a brighter note, we know that this American experiment, lit up in 1776. has worked out very well for US for 250 years. Even so, there are tragedies that happen as we traipse through our history. . . lives lost in the Revolutionary war. . .slaves abused and slain before being emancipated by President Lincoln. . . lives lost in a civil war, lives lost as settlers moved westward, making war on native tribes, lives lost in world war one, lives lost in world war two, Korean war, Vietnam war, skirmishes during the cold war, even some Americans caught up in opposing war, desert storm, Afghanistan. . . And then there’s the toll taken by Time itself. We all have but one life to live on this earth. People are dying every day. . . in hospitals, in nursing homes, in accidents and. . . God only knows. . . Some of us know when our time on earth is ending, maybe if we’re laid up in a hospital bed with an advanced age, a mortal disease or injury. For others, the big chill happens when we least expect it, in an accident. . . One way or the other, it will happen to all of us. An ancient wise man wrote, while praying to the Creator, the Lord and Giver of Life. . . “Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, (Oh Lord) You have set limits that he cannot exceed” . . .

Like this tree, we sprout up, into a world of sunlight and fresh air, surrounded by other trees and critters, until, after fifty. . . or seventy years, the weak spots become holes in the plans that we made; meanwhile, all around us, the forest prospers. Birds sing, creatures traipse around us, even into us, exploring our inner parts for shelter. All around us the forest prospers, going on and on. We see our ancestors buried in the ground. . . leaves on the forest floor, turning into soil, turning into food for new saplings, and then. . . Time waits for no man. A bright mushroom pops up to add color to the dark forest floor. We won’t live to see it, but the other inhabitants of the forest will. Life goes on, and Time. . . Glass half-Full

Gold

From the earliest days of mankind, people were fascinated with the glint of gold, whenever it would be seen, while fording a stream, or walking along a rocky path. They would pick the gold up, nuggets, or gold dust. We’ve been fascinated by it since ancient times. The ancient literature informs us that the River Pishon flowed out of Eden, and people saw gold sparkling in the water. There was an attractive glow that compelled them to gather the precious metal and make use of it to brighten up precious stuff.

As gold was acquired by people, they would treasure it, gaze at it, wonder at the beautiful golden glow. The ancient people collected gold wherever thay found it. After awhile they figured out that they could heat it and make jewelry. Gold was closely associated with the precious union of man and wife, which produced little men and little women. Wedding rings must have been forged at about that time, and have been ever since. I have had a gold ring on my finger since 1980; I have never taken it off; it represents our marriage of 46 years, and the precious three humans who were created through our union. The ring is smaller than the knuckle that keeps it on my left hand finger. You could say that gold is just about the most precious thing on this earth, except for the love that it represents. Gold was treasured in ancient cultures, and has been ever since. The king of Babylon had a big golden statue of himself that he commanded the people to bow down to. The Egyptian pharoah included it in all kinds of precious places. Later, when the Hebrews had their Ark of the Covenant; the sacred Ark had gold cast onto its top; they also used gold in the tent of meeting, to brighten the holy place up. Later, when they had a temple, there was gold in all the utensils of sacrifice, and on the priests garment, to brighten their worship of the Creator of the Universe. Later in history, and throughout time. . .when things started to fall apart, gold often became booty whenever some people took control of a sacred place or a king’s palace. But gold has its limitations. Even though it is highly valued electrical conductor, it is mostly applied to other precious purposes.

Although gold is easily forged and made into precious objects, there’s only so much you can do with it, and it is so precious that the demand for it renders gold scarce. You don’t see much of it around. . . mostly on wedding rings, but sometimes on jewelry worn by rich folks. Even so, the story is told of an ancient rich guy, a good fellow, who endured a great loss when a lot of precious stuff was taken away form him; he had a terrible ordeal to endure. At the end of his ordeal, Job was really appreciating wisdom; but he said that wisdom could not be purchased, even with gold. Later, when Messiah was born, three kings from the east brought gold as gifts. That was nice; so I guess Mary and Joseph had some valuable assets for their provision while Jesus was growing up. Later, when Jesus sent his apostles out to spread the good news of salvation, he told them not to bother with carrying gold with them. Not necessary. Later after his resurrection and ascent into heaven, it was reported that Peter had told a crippled guy that he didn’t have any gold to give him, but he would give him a healing miracle so that the guy could walk. I’d say that being able to walk is more precious than gold, wouldn’t you? Even so, we discover in the Revelation that gold does have its place in the big picture. When this present world arrangement is blown away, the new heaven and earth will have streets of gold! So now we know the true purpose of gold. . . to pave the streets of the eternal kingdom of the Creator who created gold and all the other elements and all the folks who creep around looking for gold in them thar hills. . Glass half-Full

Ballad of Brett and Blasey

Many thanks to John Phillips and Michelle Philips of the the Mama’s and the Papas. who wrote this tune and recorded it 1991.I borrowed this tune for my song about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, July 9, 2018. Lindsey and Mitchie were gettin’ kinda itchy just to leave the Judiciary behind. Chuck and his committee, working for a ditty, trying to get Brett’s nomination on time. On committee fence Jeff Flake sat, ‘cuz victims rantings knocked him flat, Lindsey and Mitchie still a’pushin’ forward in the Senate; you know where that’s at, and no one’s getting tweet ‘cept 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 can’t pass it until we surely 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 getting tweets ‘cept Blasey Ford. When Blasey was in high school accosted by a drunk fool . . . she said it was the nominee. Committee testifying: implied the nominee be lying, and stop his nomination immediately! ‘cuz he was drunk and crazy back in school days; he had accosted in a drunken haze. Lindsey and Mitchey, still a-pushin’ forward in the Senate; you know where that’s at, and no one’s getting tweets ‘cept Blasey Ford. Old school Senate rules, smart fools; America drools; the escalating hype is so strong. Tweet up Face up, everything is hype up, to make drama, and drama prolong. In a last minute surprise; Jeff proposed a compromise. Lindsey and Mitchey, still a-pushin’ forward in the Senate; you know where that’s at, and no one’s getting tweets ‘cept Blazey Ford. Ah, Broke, busted and Blasey can’t be trusted and Mitchie wants to go the floor. Diane can’t take it; she says she’ll have to shake it; We knew shed’d wanta shut that door. Slidin’ on procedures and rules: you 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. Listen to the song: https://www.micahrowland.com/carey/Ballad-of-Brett-v-Blasey.mp3 Glass half-Full

BCAC

When I was a young man, young and foolish, founded upon a foundation of the Catholic faith, God was forming my life, personality, talents, potentialities. . . allowing me a taste of life’s pleasures, making out with girlfriend on the sofa, sipping beer with buddies on Friday night, cruising around town, catching tunes on the radio, then expanding my horizon with studies at university, experimenting with pot and hallucigens, philosophy, coitus and temporary love, with no obligation, no responsibility, no children. Then along came stage 2, moving far away, not being watched by old family and friends, wandering far, far away from the religion of my youth. . . sitting at the bar, ogling topless girls. After a season, I settled down with one gal, whose influence was educational, but destructive. She led me to an old lady, said to be wise, who turned us on to some ancient mysteries that had been revealed, or so they said, by a madame blavatsky, as written in some old book, the secret doctrine, which was an occult regurgitation of ancient stuff in Asia, long ago. My relationship with these people evaporated very soon, and I went on to live life in a new way, as if I were born again. Even though the chief occultist had gone down to earth, looking for some some souls to steal, he did not get a hold on me. Strung out between a rock and a hard place, I drove down Texas and had an encounter with the Lord of Universe. . . you know, the One who created us, about the same time that he created the earth. It was a little bit like a stairway to heaven, like the one that Jacob saw, a long time ago, and then Nathanael, Jesus’s disciple, caught a glimpse of, while he was traipsing around with the first apostles.

I was born again—into a new life—it was about 1977. Not long thereafter, I met my true life companion and married her in 1980. Since that time we have lived a prosperous life, fulfilling the destiny that the Lord had set out for us, which including raising a son and two daughters. Praise Go! As the years went by, we were educated and sanctified by the faith that Jesus Moses, the prophets, and Jesus had established. . . including the assurance that when I am resurrected from this life, after 75 years or more, I will be eternally, in a better place. One last, curious detail: There was a period of time when we were traveling in China, because our son had a job there. In one leg of our journey there, near Chung Du, I happened to be in a graveyard. I noticed a gravestone with a swastika carved into the inscription. All that to say. . . that crooked cross, the the one hitler and his gang of nazi thugs had appropriated for their disastrous third reich war, destruction, holocaust, and ultimately demise, like a shot in the head in a Berlin bunker. . . that crooked cross is no more than a meme in time compared to the one on Calvary, where our Lord and Savior demonstrated for all mankind, and for all time, that Life goes on after death, and if you go with Him you will live in eternity with Him, or. . . just be laid in the cold, cold ground somewhere. Just sayin’. You can believe or not; it’s up to you. Glass half-Full

Mast Esso

In 1903, founded the Ford Motor Company. Some brave driver drove acoss the USA from coast to coast, a trip that took 65 days. In 1908, Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T. Becoming aware of the motor car popularity, investors formed General Motors Corp. By 1913, with the demand for motor cars sparking Henry Ford’s productive instincts, he pioneered new assembly line techniques in the Ford factory. Americans got in the habit of driving cars and trucks all over the country. Gas stations were established on strategic roads, street corners and highways. In 1942, Standard Oil of New Jersey constructed an oil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the east bank of the Mississippi River.

After a period of my early youth in Jackson, Mississippi, my parents moved us back to their hometown, Baton Rouge in 1963. As it happened, we occupied an old house that my mother had lived in back in her youth, located two blocks from the Standard Oil refinery. My teen years were spent living in that old house, just a stone’s throw from the Esso refinery. It seemed that the people of north Baton Rouge grew up in the shadow of that gargantuan oil refinery. My dad once told me that, back in the day, there wasn’t a valve wheel turned in the Esso plant unless “Red” Rowland, my grandfather, gave the order to turn it. Louisiana Governor Huey Long turned the wheels of politics to get Louisiana State University built in Baton Rouge, on the east side of the river , a few miles downriver from the Esso refinery. Now, in 2026, fifty-three years after my graduation from LSU, My daughter and I wander, on a Saturday afternoon, through grassy fields and overhanging trees, on the bank of the Watauga River, in the small Appalachian community of Valle Crucis, North Carolina, about a 20 minute drive from where Pat and I live in Boone. Our walk ends at the Mast Country Store, an historic landmark that has been preserved, and is still operated by the present owners, John and Faye Cooper, who purchased it in1979. They have maintained that ole-style country store. They operate it authentically, as it was back in the days of the ole country stores. An ancient US Post Office is inside on the left when you walk in. Just pass that, you can grab a Coca-Cola, ice-cold, from the old cooler. The old wooden f/oors are creaky. But hey, look at this, ma! Can I have one of those? Maybe a BabyRuth bar, or some bubble gum. Maybe you’ll get luck and get a Babe Ruth card! You can get anything you want there, just amble past the local honey, with the comb still in the jars. . . local history books, precious mementos from long ago. You can see pictures of old products on the walls. . . Chesterfield cigarette packets, Lucky Strike. It’s like stepping into the past, like Dorothy waking up in Oz and being told: “You’re not in Kansas anymore!”. . . well maybe a small community store out there on the prairie??

Kim, a tarheel photojournalist trained at the University of North Carolina, snapped this an image on her iphone for me. It represents days of a time long, long ago. . .

. . . when local grocers sold their goods independently of chain stores, operating as a true country store; they offered for purchase just about anything that a rural family might need. . .grits and groceries, dry goods, canned fruits and vegetables, local produce, work-clothes, jeans, and lots of thing that you wouln’t even think of until caught sight of them. . . motor oil. After your visit, maybe Mr. Mast will pump your tank full of Esso gasoline, maybe check you oil stick. You can see here that the gasoline was provided by Esso, the Standard Oil Company, maybe all the way from that Esso plant where my grandfather spun the valves. Seeing that old Esso logo brought to my memory the Esso plant in Baton Rouge. Who knows, maybe the gas that was pumped there, back in the day, had been pumped into a tanker through a valve that my grandfather opened. Who knows how many miles American drivers have driven since Henry Ford sent his Model T’s out of the factory? And who knows how many carbon emissions have ascended into our atmosphere while we drive from coast to coast and everywhere in between? Where’s Al Gore when you need him? Glass half-Full

The Royal Flush

There was a long period of European history in which the dominant Roman church was allied with rich landholders, dukes, earls, barons, kings and queens. For a very long time, after the demise of Roman hegemony, landholders were calling the shots in any dispute about who is in charge or who is going to establish the bounds of civil and military society and culture. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this hegemony began to fall apart. A period of philosophical and political revision, the Enlightenment, illuminated the minds of many thinking people. Those rowdy Americans lit the flames of Liberty when they declared independence from King George the third of Britain. Not long afterward, the working people of France caught that same flame of Liberty and the supposed Equality of all men and women. The French radicals mounted a revolution in 1789 and ultimately beheaded their king and queen. In the middle of the 1800’s, Karl Marx presented his theory about ultimate revolution, fomented by the working people, who would overthrow the the royals and the rich landowners and the owners of the factories and replace government and capitalist enterprises with a new type of governance, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the working people. The hot wind of Liberty and revolution was still blowing across the Continent when the royal houses of Europe ignited a firestorm of war in 1914, when Archduke Ferdinand was shot dead by a Serbian nationalist in Sarejevo, Bosnia.

But the royal regimes of Europe, accustomed to being in charge, ignited a clusterf**k of military destruction that ultimately inflicted four years of death and destruction on the people of Europe.

It just so happened that, during that time, 1914-18, the Marxist doctrines of the dictatorship of the working people were being actualized, up in Russia, where the working people were getting sick and tired of being exploited by the czar and his lap dogs of rich landowners and warmakers.The Marxist doctrine of dictatorship of the proletariat was applied to the Russian workers, who were mostly peasants laboring in vast estates, serving the landlords of the vast Russian steppes, where industrialization had not yet taken hold of society and industry. Long story short, the Russian radicals executed the czar and his family, then went on to terrorize the countryside, herding the Russian people into a new regimen of dictatorship by the working people, as Marx had theorized. After taking control of the land and all the institutions, the communist revolutionaries grabbed power away from their more moderate contemporaries. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, having no loyalty to the dead czar, released themselves and the Russian people from fighting the war that the royals of Europe had imposed on the entire continent. The new communist regime of Russia made peace with the Germans and Austrians, and began to establish their own dictatorship of the proletariat, a revolution that ultimately brought forth the communist regime that dominated Russia until the 1990’s. The Enlightenment winds of Liberty had been stirred up, but with a Marxist twist, to blow over the steppes of the far north of Europe and Asia, imposing a Stalinist cruelty that terrorized, then tamed, the Russian people until the 1980’s. Andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin were, at last, leaders who illumined by the flames of reform that had lit revolutions since the early 1800’s. What they were able to accomplish was no beacon of Liberty and Justice for all, but it was, functionally, a nation that the czars and the rich landowners would never have approved, ruled by bureaucrats. Later, at the end of the 20th century, a fresh group of Russian-styled neo-capitalists were able to commandeer the evolving institutions of new management, governance, and now wealth accumulation. Opportunistic rich Russian oligarchs were able to gain control of the bureacracy and the emerging web of newly-capitalized resources and assets of the new Russian nation, an unprecedented hybrid of communist/socialist/capitalist nationhood. So, to conclude. . .By the time that the 1920’s-30’s rolled around, the rich royals who had formerly ruled Europe were obsolete. Tragically, the 1940’s were doomed to more war when a maniac Austrian with a toothbrush moustache took hold of the highly skilled, habitually militarized German state and inflicted a World War I rerun on Europe, but with a pagan, war-obsessed nazi cruelty built into that “third reich” machinery. By the time World War II was over, most of the royal rulers of Europe had either been killed, or set aside into cultural and political irrelevance. Since that time, Europe has been a relatively peaceful place, with disputes between working people and rich people being managed by parliamentary governance. As for Russia, we shall see what the new dictator Vlad the Mad imposes on his people and the people of Ukraine and beyond. The western world process of replacing royals with governance by We the People took about a century and a half to complete. We do not want to—we must not— regress into those obsolete systems of governance by kings and queens.

Glass half-Full

Born Again Ben

Now that this writer has lived for seventy-fiver years, contemplating the great beyond, i have the experience of a very dear friend leaving this world and being taken up to the place that Jesus has prepared for us. Looking back on those early years of getting to know Ben, one of my first memories of him was shown in a photo of him painting the interior of a house that we were about to moving into.

But painting was only one of his multiple vocations. Ben was a hard worker, a husband, a father, a laboror in our Creator’s great earthly project. a life partner, a pastor, friend, a shepherd, a publisher. After his ascent, the magazine that Ben had tended for many years published a tribute edition.

In this edition, friend Chip mentioned standing at Ben’s hospital bed the day before friend Ben died. Along the reading path of that special edition, many family members and friends commemorated the treasures, the testimonies, trials and tribulations that Ben had endured during his 40 years of service to his people, to mankind, to God. He was a man whose purpose was to bring leaders and followers together, reconciling disputes among people who were joined together in a common purpose, casting estrangements into forgiveness and peace, while his wife brought six admirable people into this world. Connie would attend others’ childbirths. She and Ben followed the path of service to their people, their followers, their friends, family. In the course of 40 years of service, Ben endured periods of being rejected by some, set aside, finding himself in a position to labor, painting, planting trees, all the while planting seeds of hope and encouragement along the way, breaking ground for new growth, growth to extend the kingdom of God on this earth, growth of thousands of pine saplings on a crew with me and some other fellows, to keep the Cox family happy and healthy while he was in between pastoral assignments. All the while, he was demonstrating mercy and grace, reconciling old enmities, breaking destructive behaviors, reading and preaching the ancient Word, the Good News, living the message of sacrifice, love, joy, peace, consoling widows and ophans, burying the dead, all after comprehending in errant youth that we can do nothing of eternal significance apart from being joined to the giver of life, the Creator, the vine on which eternal branches are nourished and irrigated with living water; Be understood the pit of despair where some of us fall , because he had been there, comprehending the transformation from a reckless lifestyle to salvation, utilizing that awareness of being born again and presenting that testimony to others who are in harm’s way, all of which he did to the very end. Sometime back in 1990’s, our friend David Browne set up a sound studio in our town, Boone. I gathered some friends together to help me record a song, Boomers’ Choice. In the recording, Ben’s son, Nathaneal, is playing the drums. Ben’s voice comes out loud and clear on a couple of refrains, where’s he’s singing, with our ensemble: “hey, hey, hoe, is there anybody home?”. . . You can hear the song in this link which is on my website: Boomer's Choice I look forward to singing with Ben again in heaven! King of Soul

A Wonderful World

A young man in Louisiana was called into the US Army during the war to defeat Nazi Germany and their Japanese allies. He was assigned to the signal corps, which involved him in radio technology. Not long after his training had been completed in Utah, the war ended when the Allies drove the third reich into the ground and their demonic leader shot himself in the head in a Berlin bunker. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, so to speak our American military had teamed up with Albert Einstein to devise a way of using atomic energy to manufacture a super bomb, an atomic bomb, the likes of which no man had ever seen. They used the finished product to inflict atomic explosions on Japan, an event unlike any that mankind had ever witnessed or experience. In the sweet by and by of progress, we developed technology for peaceful us of atomic power to generate electricity. When the big war was over, Louis was released from his military training. He returned to Louisiana and studied forestry at Louisiana State University. There he met Kathryn, a hometown girl who was majoring in chemistry. They married. Soon thereafter, they brought two boys and two girls into this world. Having obtained employment as state forester for the state of Mississippi, they bought a house, using the G.I. bill funds to get a start in post-war America. Their son, Carey, born to Louis and Kathryn in 1951 on a Friday 13th, July, was photographed while striding through the early days and driveways of the baby boomer generation.

Meanwhile, back in Baton Rouge, Kathryn’s mother, a widow, married a prosperous insurance man who had started his own insurance company, because. . . because that’s what Americans do; they start companies to make products and perform services. Carey’s maternal grandmother, Lelia, and her husband enjoyed travels in different parts of the world. Somewhere along the way, Lelia purchased a precious pottery, which had been set upon a marble table top in Lelia’s living room. Many years later, the vase was brought to our home, where Carey and Pat have lived since 1992, on an a wooded hillside in the Appalachian mountain, near Boone. In a moment of reflection on life’s precious memories and artifacts, I set these items on a deck rail and snapped into photographic history the memory of daddy’s shortwave radio and mama’s vase that her mother had given her.

The short wave no longer sends signals across radio waves of the world, because i don’t know how to operate it. But my dad did, and I remember him. The vase represents a prosperous life, now long gone, that had been lived by my grandmother in her travels around, what Louis Armstrong called, a Wonderful World. http://www.micahrowland.com/carey/Boomer's Choice.mp3 King of Soul

Understanding

Understanding is a long word. It combines a preposition, under, with a verb, standing. “Standing” is the present (here and now) tense, meaning that it is happening now. But the word “understanding” functions as a noun, something that is present in the mind of a person who comprehends the meaning, or the importance, or the significance of whatever is happening, or understand the meaning of an object, such a book, a document, a work of art, statue or any given thing that happens to show up. A STOP sign is understood by the driver; an EXIT sign is understand. When a person achieves old age, as this writer has after 75 summers, their understanding of this world, or this life, is more complete than it was at, say, age 25, or age 50. We old folks like to think that we know a thing or two about what is going on in this life, whether its obvious, or behind the scenes. I’ll provide an example here. Consider the events that took place at the US Capitol on January 6, 2020, when our Congress was attacked by a mob of proud boys, oath bleepers and 3%ers, along with a bunch of other wild people.

There are two ways to understand this event. Either it was lawful and permissible, or it unlawful and criminal. Was it in the same category as the American Revolution, a legitimate cause with a belligerent strategy, or unjust attempt to seize power and authority? Or was it a rebellion, as the southern states had attempted in the Civil War? In our present circumstance, our United States of America is in a divisive predicament. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, who established the foundational document of true understanding. Understand it by reading Mattew 5: “Blessed are. . . the gentle people, people who are pure in their motives, people who have been persecuted even when they were right, Jesus advises opponents in a court to settle their differences before they drag the court people into the dispute. He also advises us to turn the other cheek when someone slaps us with an insult or a punch or some other offense. The bottom line of this treatise on understanding is: try to figure things out, calm down, make peace with your opponent before the sh** hits the fan, or the punch is thrown or the shot is fired or whatever.

Now that I have presented a reasonable explanation of “understanding” and its importance, I’ll direct you to musical representation, as conducted by the Moody Blues, in a place far away, a time long ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sp5iMzgENM

El Shaddai

YWHW stretched out the universe with a tapestry of stars and planets, moons and tunes of spinning wheels. Along the way YWHW created us people. YWHW appointed the man as angular and agile, the woman as beautiful and bountiful. When the man and the women joined themselves together, new boys and girls were born into the world. As time passed, the boys and girls grew up to be men and women.Then the family cycle became a continuing cycle, a heritage, with one season following another, laden with happiness and tears. When it all gets down to it, we are all strung out into this life, trying to make a joyful sound without some high and mighty authority depriving us of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Mothers and fathers, their lives strung out like gut strings on a fiddle, hoping to stretch those forte’s and adagios as far as they can before the final notes of life’s melodies are sounded. . . do ponder their expanded life, perched upon the heights of maturity, middle age and then old age and beyond to whatever is eternal. They would ask themselves, regarding those young ones whom they have brought into this shtetl world: “When did she get to be a beauty? When did he grow to be so tall? Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small? I can’t remember growing older. When did they?”

Lastly, when the holy elder is asked to pray for the tsar, he prays: “May the Lord bless and keep the tsar. . . of maralago far away from USa! Glass half-Full

Empire

In kingdoms, long, long ago. . . China India Babylon Persia Egypt And then there were. . . Assyria Greece Rome, but eventually split into kingdoms.

and somewhere along the way. . . Byzantium Russia on the other side of the world. . . Maya Aztec

In Medieval and Modern Times. . . Spain Austria France Germany There was a time when the sun shone on. . . Great Britain

And once upon a time in a former republic far, far away. . . America

Glass half-Full

Jonah

Long, long ago, in a place far away, in a kingdom by the sea. . . The word of the Lord, the Creator of the universe, came to the prophet Jonah, saying: “Arise, go to Ninevah, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has become known to me.” As we were wandering on the Yucatan shores of Mexico this afternoon, I noticed this ancient Mayan city that had fallen into ruins:

As I was contemplating the parabolic Jonah/Jesus connection, it seemed to me that these ruins might resemble the ancient city of Ninevah that was in peril during the time of Jonah. Now I don’t know but I been told that the ancient city of Ninevah had become a place where corruption and something like wicked magamania proliferated and accumulated, like sargasso sludge on the shores of ancient history. And so, “ The word of the Lord came to the prophet Jonah saying: ‘Arise, go to Ninevah, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has become known to me.” But Jonah neglected this divine command; he decided to sail to another locale, a place known then as Tarshish, probably somewhere on the Mediterranean, between Cyprus and Spain. But the Creator, the Master of the Universe, El Shaddai/YWHW, had other plans. So. . . when the sailors of the ship suspected, with a little help from on High, that there was something fishy about the passengers on the ship, they began to worry about the voyage as the wind whipped up to a furious gale and the good ship and crew were in peril. When the sailors realized that their passenger Jonah was trying to get away from the Lord’s calling, they conducted an enquiry. Long story short. . . Jonah confessed that he had boarded the ship in an attempt to get away from the Lord’s calling him to deliver prophetic warnings to the people in Ninevah. So they solved their near-shipwreck problem. They tossed Jonah into the sea. Suddenly, he was in serious trouble underwater. But the Lord had mercy on him, even in the depths of his Mediterranean peril. The Lord appointed a whale to swallow him; so Jonah was in the belly of the whale, as it turned out. . . for three days. Then the whale spit Jonah out. The scene might have looked something like this, with Jonah mired in sargasso sludge.

Later. . . many years later, when Jesus was living in this world, he compared what would be his post-crucifixion entombment to Jonah’s ordeal in the belly of the whale. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) Glass half-Full

Justice and Mercy

Dispense true justice, and practice kindness and compassion each person to each person; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the immigrant or the poor folks, and do not make trouble for people you don’t like. Do for other people what you would like them to do for you. Don’t tread over them like a rug on the floor. Pay attention, all you wise guys, all you rich folks; you do this, that and the other, thinking that you are so special and privileged, but you have neglected the more important legacies of our nation’s history, justice and mercy and helping those who cannot help themselves. Let justice and mercy roll down from the far north to the deep south, as the Missouri, the Mississippi and the Ohio roll down from Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. . . and even beyond that. . . to our southward neighbors, beyond the Rio Grande, past the Gulf of Mexico. Heal the sick, provide help and guidance and glasses for the blind, and guide them so they do not stumble on the walls of the nation or the stalls of immigration. Receive the poor folks, the weary people, the huddled masses yearning to be free!

Conserve your resources and be generous with your heritage, as giving is more precious than receiving, and giving, without measure, gives in return the wondrous yearn for peace and justice, almost manifested, time and time again, until we get it right, or left or whatever the help of America provides, overcoming the will to power, casting aside the selfishness and the magamania that so easily besets us. Walk hand in hand, and together we’ll stand. . . on the threshold of the American dream! http://www.careyrowland.com http://www.micahrowland.com/carey/Mountaintop.mp3

Born in the USA, I grew up with an occidental perspective on this life, .viewing the world through a scope of western civilization, history and culture. As far as we know, based on ancient biblical history as reported by Moses and the Bible, it all started in Euphrates valley: Adam and Even. . . Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth et al. There’s also the epic of Gilgamesh, a kingdom of Uruk, which makes sense, from my perspective, because Abraham left a place which the Bible names “Ur of the Chaldees” when he decided to head west. From that time forward, western culture has pretty much move toward the setting sun ever since. Judaic culture migrated westward toward Greece, joining up with the Athenian wise guys blending biblical religion with philosophy. As Christian faith and culture expanded, becoming more and more organized along the way, important people were taking charge of things with empires and kingdoms strung out along the way, The Romans had an impressive run, eventually joining up, thanks to Constantine, with Christians along the way. After many years, the Roman empire split up, with authority, wealth and culture being distributed regionally among kings, dukes, bishops. The European expansion ran all the way from what is now southern Turkey, then called Asia minor, to the western shores of the European continent, where Spain and France are now. In 1492, Spanish Queen Isabella. and King Ferdinand II commissioned an Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, to sail westward over the Atlantic ocean, to discover what they might find there. They reached the Bahama islands and established a colony. . . and the rest is history. Truth be told, Columbus was not the first European to set eyes on America. A Norse explorer, Leif Erikson, had sailed to a northern coast, probably what is now Newfoundland. When the Europeans began sailing to the New World, a new phase of history was being established, from Atlantic to Pacific. The rest is American history. Now here is, as Paul Harvey used to say. . . the rest of the story. Once Europeans began coming here and establishing their cultured way of living, world history was changed forever. Europeans considered the New World natives to be primitive. There were battles, conflict and bloodshed when European invaders, advanced in technology and military hardware, tried to take over in America. Even so, In their so-called primitive way of living, the native Americans held an awareness of this earth that is far more sensitive to our natural world. We’ve come a long way, since ancient Babylon and Ur of the Chaldees. In our civilized way of doing things, we’d best maintain standards to preserve our earth in lifetstyles that replenish and repair the earth as we go along toward whatever the westward gold rush has compelled us to go, so we don’t end up like Custer did. Sitting Bull's Eyes

glass half-Full

The Eagle

While spending some time in Tulum, Mexico, I noticed this Mexican flag.

The flag was draped on a wall, near a cenot’e, where people swim in a pool of sparkling clear water that is fed by an underground stream. Gazing at the flag, I was fascinated with the eagle, clutching a snake. As an American, I can relate. Our national symbol is also an eagle. My curiosity about the image widened into a search for eagle references in my favorite book for research, that ancient collection of scripture that we call the Bible. I noticed, in the 30th proverb of the wise king Solomon, that he was fascinated by “the way of an eagle in sky, navigating the high winds in order to scope out the terrain below.” The eagle glides on the high winds, soaring and sweeping, all the while keeping his eyes on the ground below, in search of some animal that he may swoop down on, for a meal. Yes, Virginia, our national symbol is a predator. Read ‘em and weep, y’all, but remember this: our great nation has enacted a history of revolution based upon the freedom of all men. Ultimately, we had to fight a terrible civil war in order to assure the freedom and dignity of all people.

Today, visiting here in Mexico, seeing the eagle on the Mexican flag, there is no doubt that the Mexican people have had their share of revolution against their mother country, Spain. They liberated themselves from Spain in 1810. Their flag symbol presents an eagle perched on a cactus while devouring a serpent. When I viewed their flag today, I saw the determination of the Mexican people to free themselves from Spanish hegemony, just as we Americans freed ourselves from British colonialism. (For all ye Brits out there. . . no offense. . . we still love you blokes.) So we see that the Mexican republic presented the eagle on the their flag as a symbol of their determination to overpower the Spanish empire that had strived to keep them in colonial bondage. In the same way, our American republic presents the eagle as a symbol of our original determination to acquire independence from Britain. And that has worked out quite well for everybody, including the Brits who did just fine after we shook their snaky colonial hegemony off of us, like an eagle overpowering a snake. Glass half-Full

Mountain

In 1958, when I was nine years old, my parents drove us from Mississippi all the way to Seattle, where my dad attended an international forestry commission. We were driving through the Rockies. There was a stream in the valley below us. As we rounded a bend in road, lo and behold, there was a cattle drive, right in the middle of the road, conducted by some cowboys. I was amazed. These fellers looked just like the cowboys I’d seen on TV. . . Roy Rogers, Rowdy Yates, Lone Ranger, Ben Cartwright and his three sons. We had to stop; a cowboy let me climb up on the horse with him; my dad snapped a photo. It was a wondrous moment for a boy from the deep south. Those Colorado mountains were only the beginning of my mountain experiences. When we got to Seattle, we were driving through the city when I happened to glance up and see a great pink apparition floating in the sky, but it turned out to be Mt. Rainier. Six years later, my aunt Lena and Uncle Cooper were driving me and my friend Johnny through Mexico. Suddenly, I noticed a mountain in the distance. I’ll never forget that moment. Farther along, I had another mountain wonder moment when we rounded a curve; suddenly I caught a glimpse of Acapulco beach, stretched out below, along the Pacific Coast. It seems my youthful mountain wonder inspired me ultimately, to move to the Blue Ridge in 1975. While living in flat Florida, I had seen a movie, Where the Lilies Bloom, that prompted my decision. While living in Asheville, I attempted to start a newspaper, the first issue of which was prompted by a group of us boomer dreamers to prevent the NC DOT from cutting Beaucatcher mountain so they run I-40 through it. Well, it was a nice try, but so much for youthful idealism. A few years later, when we moved to Boone, I spent a couple of years working on a construction crew, to build a the Blue Ridge Parkway around Grandfather Mountain, a major peak of the Appalachian range, the oldest mountains in our world.

Now we live in the side of a small mountain, near Boone, about 25 miles from Grandfather. In all those years since, I’ve learned a lot about mountains. Moses brought the ten commandments down from Mount Sinai. That event, and the Ten Commandments delivered there, changed history forever.

Later, Jesus spent some time on the Mount of Olives.

2000+ years later, Martin Luther King took Moses’ revelation when he spoke of having been to the Mountaintop, when identifying his earthly mission with Moses’ mission, which had ended on Mt. Pisgah, where the Lord had given Moses a glimpse of the promised land, before taking him up to heaven. You can hear my song about Moses’ mountaintop experience and Dr. King’s mountaintop inspiration at Mountaintop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hQNMr0A48

American Liberty

From a Boston church steeple to the red clay hills of Georgia, the cry for freedom rang out, nourished by the blood of innocent citizens and dedicated patriots. The clarion call for freedom rang out like a clanging bell, sounded loudly in the voices, the horns and the shots heard around the world. Who knew? Who knew that American independence would inspire a wave of Liberty around the world? From the bold declaring of Independence, agreed to and signed into reality by native patriots who assembled in Philadelphia, not yet knowing the bloody consequences of their rebellion? who knew?

Who knew that the principles stated in their Declaration, would ultimately inspire President Abraham Lincoln to issue an Emancipation of slaves, so that they could be citizens of these United States, and live free, and work for themselves and have freedom. Who knew that Martin Luther King’s dream of Liberty for all people would be actualized, slowly but surely, between the red clay hills of Georgia, the shores of Maine, the coffee klatches of Seattle, the gates of our southern border, and Pearl Harbor in the middle of the Pacific ocean? Who knew? Truth be told, cold hard facts. . . the Revolution was a bloody battle in which we finally ejected King George’s soldiers, and initiated a struggle for freedom that has inspired the whole world since those days in 1776.

Glass half-Full

Flowers to Seeds

I don’t know, but I been told that in the Beginning, the Creator of this world said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed. . .and so the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their own kind.

Later, the first man and woman screwed up, so the Creator ejected them from the garden, and set them out into the wide world to make it on their own. They procreated, making love. . . every time a man deposited his seed into his woman, or at least some times, his male seed would conjoin with her fertility and then, lo and behold, nine months later, a little baby would pop out. I first heard about this when I was in fourth grade, I began to understand some of these divine arrangements when a buddy of mine told me that the man puts the seed into his wife, or that she has the seed and he fertilizes it, something like that. . . and if his aim is good and she’s fertile, get this! another human will pop out a few months later! But getting back to that ancient genesis “seed”. . . generations of men and women populated the earth. Some of them were pretty good people; others, not so much. Eventually, the Creator noticed a fellow who was doing things right. He took Abraham aside and told them that in his “seed”, all generations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham obeyed the Creator’s rules for living a good life, and he taught his offspring the proper way of living. But you know the rest of story. A lot of things happened in this world. . . a lot of water under the bridge, so to speak, and millions of seeds were planted; hundreds of years passed. . .things were going along pretty well in Palestine, under Roman rule. Generation’s later, the Creator did a special impregnation, when (first time ever) a woman’s womb was fertilized without the man’s seed! The child was special, having a divine nature; He was destined to change the world, (you’ve probably heard of Him). . . by his resurrection after he was crucified for breaking a few rules, or something like that. His message—you’ve probably heard it—has been told from generation to generation ever since those ancient days. When Jesus was teaching men how to live, he told parables to illustrate the principles of the way the Creator does things. He said that the good news of His sacrificial work, was that He conquered death itself! But you gotta believe it to qualify. He said that the good news of his victory was like the news of His salvation. His conquest of death itself would be like seed that a farmer went out sew, and some of the seed landed in fertile ground, destined to bear fruit and more seed. Some seeds would sprout, and some would not. So keep that in mind whenever you plant your seed anywhere. It’s better to have a good crop than not to have a crop, thereby letting your offspring screw up. Train a child in the way he or she should go, and most likely the good news will bear fruit and your seed will be engendered in your progeny. Now because I am twice-born. . . once from my mother’s womb, and then again, spiritually, when I saw the Light of eternal Life that shines through the whole history of this world. And because, I am born again, this is what I thought of when I caught sight of the plant. . .

Glass half-Full

Something Happening

The voice of Stephen Stills still echoes in my memory as I remember, back in the day—1968, I think it was. . . his words sung in a song on the radio, “There’s somethin’ happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

That assessment—or maybe it was just a feeling, a hunch—was a thought that seemed to hang like a storm cloud over my generation. From the Cuban missile crisis, to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, to the November 22, 1963 shock wave of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. . . and on and on. . . why the hell did Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald? There’s somethin’. . . it ain’t exactly clear . . . clouded in a mist of Agent Orange. . . then the Pentagon papers. . . Ellsberg said “I hope I’m never in a job where I have to lie like that’’, referring to the public comments of a defence secretary. Then there’s Kissinger playing the craps game with the press and the jungle people of Vietnam.

Then there’s Nixon drawing fire from the press over his suppression of a nocturnal burglary in Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in the Watergate hotel, Then so much public questioning, criticism about tricky dick’s “dirty tricks” that decides to just leave the oval office before the American people and their lawyers impeach him. So Nixon waves goodbye. A hand-picked VP turned President for a few days, or weeks before Jimmy Carter left his peanut farm in Georgia, defeated Ford in ’76. He had to deal with Benachem Begin and Anwar Sadat trying to make peace in the Middle East (sounds oddly familiar) But then all hell broke loose when the Iranians ejected their Shah. Iranians raided the American embassy in Tehran. The 1980 election was bearing down on Carter. . . a gubernatorial cowboy from California rode into Washington to put an end to the shootout at the Iran corral. It really was like an old western. . . when Ronald Reagan rode into Washington, just like in the old cowboy movies like my dad used to watch, back in the ’50’s. Looking back on it all, now at age 75, I’m still thinking, as Stephen had sung back in the day. . . “There’s something happenin’ here; what it is ain’t exactly clear”. . . Something happening in 2026. . . something wrong that needs a fix. . . it’s just a. . . weird magamania that won’t settle back into the American way of Law and Order.

King of Soul

We the People will

When in the course of American events, it becomes necessary for the People to dizzolve the political bands which have connected them with a tyrant magamaniac, and to appropriate among the powers of our Constitution and our Rule of Law, a separation of the insurrection instigator from the executive office that he had formerly obtained . . . a decent respect for our Rule of Law requires that we should declare the reasons that impel US to the Impeachment.

We hold these recent events to be self-evident, that our Congress was attacked and that our Constitution endows us to protect our senators and representatives, and to defend, legislate and preserve our heritage of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of lawfulness, and that to secure these rights We have a long history of lawful resolution of disputes between liberals and conservatives, between Democrats and Republicans, between our Constitution and rebel Confederates who had attempted to separate themselves from US so that they could enslave other citizens of these United States. And furthermore, in the course of our history. . .Conservatives, Congress, and our Constitution have played major roles in the preservation of our Union. Even in our tribulation time of 1930’s Depression. . . we managed, by Congressional, Judicial and Executive declarations to preserve the peace and prosperity of America. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that our government, long established, should not be destructed for the sake of one chief insurrectionist who happened to be traipsing in the Rose Garden on January 6, 2021 and who still yet strives to establish his name, unworthily, in our most hallowed American institutions and landmarks.

We therefore resolve to protect and defend our ole New Deal, our Great Society, even our Morning in America, which happens every day that the sun shines on US. We can improve and provide for our Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Prosperity while still utilizing our historic ole New Deal and its subsequent Deep State, like it or not, read ‘em and weep all ye magamaniacs. . . our Great Society, even our deepstate bureaucracy required for all our agencies to function, alive an ticking. Yes, indeed. . .

We the People will somehow, some way, raise up the party of Lincoln. We shall overcome the magamania that so recently occupied the GOP by hook or by crook, we know not which. We shall let the Supreme Court pick and choose from their shadow docket, even as they toss their immunity life raft to a sinking president, even as the people come and go, speaking of Michelangelo, or of whomever the chief insurrectionist chooses to decorate his ballroom, or his reflecting pool, or his magamaniacs who try to Make America Go Awry. We can slog through the slush funds, drain the swamp or whatever it takes for a free people to break the bands of injustice and insurrection. We can overcome again, and again and again. . .until its time for We the People to elect new leaders. We Shall Overcome the gerrymandering pandering, somehow, some way, when its least expected, because We have a dream that someday, all God’s children will prevail when Justice rolls down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. . . and all God’s children will live together, whether in the red clay hills of Georgia, the rocky shores of Maine, the old north church in Boston, or any church. . .the coffee clatches of Washington or the star-studded studios of Hollywood. . . We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I know. . . Americans will overcome magamania. Glass half-full</b>