Sunday, July 29, 2018

Our 15 Minutes of Flame?

The count down continues!



 

To say that a lot is riding on the elections on November 6 is an understatement.  What happens that day will dramatically impact the nature of American Democracy and the fate of this planet with it's myriad species of animals, plants, and other beings.

Although the focal point of much of our attention, ire, and dismay has been Trumpasaurus Wrecks and his Unholy Crew in the Executive Branch, the damage that he is able to do has been possible only because the Retrograde Republican Congress continues to further the agenda of the far right wing that has taken control of  the Republican Party.


These folks, bankrolled by reactionary elements of the Billionaire class, have had their sites set on dismantling the achievements of the New Deal, on gutting Social Security, Medicare, and destroying  our nation's collective attempts to curtail the damage caused by the racism, sexism, and unbridled capitalism that lies in the belly of our nation's culture.

Like Bernie and a whole bunch of us, it burns me up!

100 days isn't a lot of time.  There is no doubt about it.  It's time to get our butts in gear. The clock is running out.

As of today, the Koch brothers' net worth is about $100, 000, 000, 000.   If you lost track of the zero's, that's a freakin' hundred billion dollars!  That's an insane amount of money to possess.  Especially when they use a whole bunch of their loot to hire legions of highly paid professional operatives out there using state of the technologies to warp our collective reality across the web, the airwaves, and in print.  

As of today, I have about $20 in my bank account. 

What's a poor boy to do?  What each and every one of us can do.  A whole bunch of us better roll up our sleeves and get to work.  If we don't, it could spell doom -- at least for the foreseeable future, if not forever.

I'm Making a Pledge to Take the Pledge.
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My Humble Take on the Real Deal

I believe that the movement for peace, economic democracy and social justice is a Spiritual Quest. No mean feat, what is called for is a True Revolution of the Heart and Mind--and it starts with each of us.

This revolution has to be Peaceful. The Hippies (and Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King, et al) had it right. It really is all about Peace and Love. Besides being a total drag, violence just doesn't work. It keeps our wheels spinning in fear, anger and pain. Who needs that?

Besides some hard work, I think the Revolution also calls for dancing, plenty of laughter, and some sitting around just doing nothing. (Some folks call it meditation.)


As Stephen Gaskin, proclaimed years ago:

"We're out to raise Hell--in the Bodhisattvic* sense."

Doesn't that sound like some serious fun?

(*The Bodhisattva Vow is a set of commitments made in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. It basically says I vow to get my act together and figure it out well enough to really help out--and I ain't gonna stop until everybody is covered.

I've found that doesn't necessarily have to happen in that order. It's best to try to help out even before you have it all together! Like right now.)

-----Brother Lefty Smith, Founding S.O.B*