❤️ 🎶 Rambling On with Brother Lefty Smith, S.O.B.* 🎶: 2024

Saturday, July 20, 2024

There Are No Words

At this moment, it's clear to me that there are no words that can assuage the agony being experienced by the residents of Gaza. It's just as clear to me that there are no creeds nor credos, no systems of belief or disbelief, that can justify the carnage.

Yet, a song is emerging as a lament -- and a passionate call for justice. Here's the lyrics -- so far.

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For God and Country

More children dying

Mothers crying

Missles flying

Politicians justifying lying

Vying for supremacy

Denigration

Demonization

Defamation

Degradation

Deprivation

Desparation

Destination victory

Chorus

For God and Country

For God and Country right or wrong

For God and Country

For God and country right or wrong

wrong wrong wrong

Never again

From the river to the sea

More children dying

Mother's crying

Missles flying

Theologians sanctifying dying

Vying for eternity

Apocolyptic

Catastrophic

Vitriolic

Hyperbolic

Supersonic

Patriotic

Toxic claims of certainty

For God and Country

For God and Country right or wrong

For God and Country

For God and country right or wrong

wrong wrong wrong

Never again

From the river to the sea

More children dying

Mother's crying

Market's flying

High profits justifying

Plying murder for prosperity

Capitalization

Calculation

Militarization

Computation

Monetization

Exploitation

Domination a cruel hegemony

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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*

"I think the hippies had it right. It IS all about Peace and Love. I came to realize, though, this is easier said than done. Living a life of kindness, clarity, and compassion takes effort, discipline and patience.

I also came to realize that, contrary to what we had been led to believe in a capitalist society, "rugged individualism" is a dangerous distortion of reality. It denies that fact that we are, each of us, connected to everyone and everything else. So, Peace and Love are relational, a collective experience. None of us can really get it together independently.

So, as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr King showed the world, finding others to work with, rolling up your sleeves, and engaging in non-violent political action is a freakin' no-brainer.

What else is there to do? "
--Brother Lefty