I am falling behind on my intention to post daily about my writing retreat experience (lost in the wilderness of Social Media, marketing, SEO, Bots and Billions like me trying to be heard—sticking to my goal matters only to me). It is a dream—I am writing hour upon hour. Which mirrors the why of writing. Do you write for publication or do you write because it is impossible not to write—impossible not to hope you can bring a new perspective to the discourse? Change not only your narrative but to resist retrograde failed resurgent narratives, fantasies that circulated in the dark holes of fascists, racist, white supremacist to enthralled to Christian crusades. Do you write not to save yourself, family, friends, but the country but the world from the nihilist seductive hateful racist cultural flame spares no one especially not the child playing with matches. We are easily led by false prophets promising exceptionalism and world supremacy. Despite billions upon billions of Bibles printed, bought, preached we still believe the distortions of the words of God and Jesus and Allah used by power hungry greedy “religious” and political leaders.
I am with Bill Mahar religion as practiced by Christianity, Judaism, Islam, even Buddhists in Myanmar, is bankrupt. Stoking the fears of the faithful ignited most past wars. Homer’s Iliad may be an exception in that the mythicized account of Helen’s beauty inspired the Trojan War when she left her husband or was abducted by another man. Of course, Helen was viewed as a prized possession and legacy, so the war in the end still was about power, land, and the favor of gods and goddesses. The main excuse for war, of course, is conquest. Religion is a cloak, the Marxian opiate, a land grab on the afterlife secured by death in the glory of war (also from Homer’s Iliad).
There is no glory in war, to be a warrior is to be a state-sanctioned sociopath, a mass murderer. But first, the state, reinforced by craven religious leaders, state religion, and state media, must define patriotism in nationalistic slogans taught in state-sanctioned textbooks, reinforced by media, entertainment and the best form of subliminal brainwashing, consumerism.
How else can we learn to define our neighbors as friends or foes except through massive campaigns of reinforced messages? Marketing. How can boys and now girls taught to play nice kill women and children? War breaks the warrior and our military men and woman are warriors broken physically and mentally. Their state pawns used to recruit the next generation of warriors. We are a warrior nation no less than Spartan, no less than Nazi Germany. But unlike Germany, we never stop to reassess our history. Yes, there will always be Hitler imitators. The world is teaming with them now even in the country proud of its legacy of defeating Hitler, Nationalism, Racism, Anti-Semitism, the systemized rounding up of groups of people the state declared “undesirable.”
Fascist Nationalism was defeated!
DEMOCRACY WON!
Can somebody please tell me why the United States Congress is scarifying our freedom—everyone’s freedom including White men and Evangelicals for Authoritarian Dictatorships that have failed throughout history as recent as the older white men and women whose fathers and grandfathers fought and died in World War II to defeat the very Nationalism they now support?
We were the good guys! The Nazis and Fascists were the bad guys! We wore the Stars and Stripes! They wore the Swastika! What did the fuck happen to us? What happened to the Republican Party? One answer is the “religious” right (wrong). The craven abuse of the once silent minority that is now the boisterous White Evangelical and National Rifle Association. They like Hitler turned the tables on their Frankenstein creator’s arrogance. The Republican Party made the same misguided mistake the ruling Weimar Party made thinking they could control the monster. The Republican Party lost control and has been co-opted by the Christian-Evangelical Right, The National Rifle Association, The Freedom Party, The Freedom Caucus, White Nationalist Supremacists, and Donald Trump. History repeats itself and Democracy gets agita.
There must be a broken connection somewhere to be able to look in the face of a child and see a deadly enemy.
Since September 11, 2001, our government has turned its people, US, into heartless wraiths. Donald Trump is no accident. He is the fulcrum in the plot to destroy our Constitutional system and replace it with a One-Party, Oligarchy based on the Putin model.
And if that is over the top and baseless why doesn’t the Republican Party defend the Declaration of Independence and Constitution they once wrapped themselves in. Why are unborn embryos and unlimited access to assault rifles more important than our founding principles hundreds of thousands have given their lives to defend uphold and preserve?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
The only possible answer is craven greed! A plot by whom for whom? Do any Republican Senators truly believe their ill-informed—misguided policies are for the good for the country? What do they know and when did they know it? Why do they want to starve children physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually? What deformed master race delusions have they brewed to gum up the works of every democratic institution set in motion since the end of World War II? Are they just geriatric bitter old white men and women? Once the Republican Party purported to have ideals. Small government and low taxes but each time they get the gavel the Republican Congress bludgeons the deficit. Are Republicans at heart anarchist?
The Republican Party has repeatedly endangered every institution set in motion since World War II. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and a whole host of Nixon career bureaucrats and Neo-Cons mixed and stirred the attack on the World Trade Center. The lethal martinis and elitist cocktail chatter to take over the office of the presidency. The presidency slipped out of the Republican’s slimy grip with Barack Obama simply put they got sloppy inside their incestual bubble. But, Fox News, Right-Wing Radio, The Tea Party and gerrymandering along with the Supreme Court Citizens United decision to allow a handful of Oligarchs to deluge local and state races with campaign millions and with an assist from Mega Churches, Putin’s Russia and Social Media they won it back. Trump is all that was needed to seal closed and cement the door shut.
And so, I am reminded of another reason that drove me to flee to Sperlonga, to escape the disgusting display of racist hate and populist ignorance of the present White House occupant. Donald Trump is not in himself the danger to the United States and the world. The Republican Party’s inability to lead enables the travesty Donald Trump perpetrates with every Tweet to destroy the country.
The Civil Rights Movement and the anti-war protests against the Vietnam War succeeded in creating a more liberal equal country. Jim Morrison sang Five in One Baby, One in Five. They got the guns but we (still) got the numbers.
We still have time to stop the slide down the slippery slope to an Authoritarian Nationalist Racist Country. The voting has begun despite your age, race, color, creed, gender and party affiliation, the time is now!
It would not matter if Trump, the Oligarchs, the Republican Party, put a million dollars in each citizens bank account. It would not matter if unemployment dropped to zero. It would not matter if World Peace breaks out. All those are great shiny objects that even authoritarian dystopias employ. Lipstick on a pig.
Nothing matters except the very ideals the United States was founded on by flawed idealistic men at the start of the Democratic Experiment.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Meaning:
Freedom from Discrimination
Freedom from Racism—Sexism—Islamophobia—Homophobia
Freedom from Anti-Semitism
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from Hate Mongers Preaching Hate
Freedom from the Danger of Hateful Speech
Equal Opportunity
The End to For-Profit Healthcare
The Right to the Best Possible Education
The Right to Job Training for the 21st Century
Safe Schools
Gender Equality
The Right to Say No
The Restoration of Income Balance
The Right to House—Cloth and Feed Your Family
The Right to Excellent Housing
Freedom to Make Your Own Life Choices
Freedom from Religion
Freedom to Worship How and Where You Chose
Freedom to Drive—Walk—Sit—Live While Being Black, Brown, Man—Woman—Child—Transexual—Homosexual—Gay—Lesbian—Muslim—Latino—Undocumented—Asian—Indian—Native America
The Right to Human Dignity and Respect
Freedom to Marry the Person You Love
Freedom to Live in the Body You Want
Freedom from Overreach by the State
The Right to Trial by Your Peers
Freedom Predatory Bail and Fines
Freedom from State Institutions
Freedom from the Corrupt Private Prison System
Freedom from Social Media Selling Your Privacy
The Right to Humanely Trained Police Force
Individual Equality with the State and Corporations
The Right Worker’s Rights and Safety
The Right to Job Safety
The Right Individual Dignity
The Right to Community and Social Services
The Right to Share in Corporate Profits
The Right to Succeed
The Right to Help When You Fall on Hard Times
The Right to Clear Labeling
The Right to Clean Drinking Water and Air
The Right to Government and Corporate Transparency
The Right to a Piece of the Pie
The Restoration of Human and Civil Rights
The Right to a Dignified Old Age
The Right to Affordable Humane End of Life Care
The Right to be Free
The Right to Liberty
The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness
The Right to Define Individual Happiness
Freedom from Gun Violence
The Right to Chose
Freedom from Zealots and Fundamentalist
Freedom from Political Abuse of Social Issues
This is what is being stolen, threatened, and suppressed. This is what is on the ballot in November.
Breathe Free Press Archive 