Demolishing the Edifices of Our Oppression

It is one thing to topple a single iconic structure, but our overseers have so completely wrapped us in the chains of servitude, breaking a single link will not be enough to slip free. Sport was initially invented by the Greeks to keep citizens out of politics and they are serving the same function more than six centuries later. Even with the recent growing awareness that repeated head injury leads to life-long disability, self-medication with drugs and alcohol and violent temper tantrums in brain damaged individuals that can lead to suicidal tendencies, many of the fans still want to watch the carnage that takes place on football fields across our country. Bringing reason and sensibility to the masses would be a mammoth task if we were to undertake it and one of the towering lies that are used to control us is that football gives "hope" to many underprivileged individuals who have no other route out of poverty. Other sports are equally hailed as a great thing for minorities and others who would normally be chewed up and spit out by our social order, but the tiny fraction of those who come out ahead in their sporting career is unbelievably minute.

Tackling this issue will take a sea change in our attitude toward our own children, valuing them and their brains appropriately. When I was in school, I had routine contact with football players and others players of a variety of sports. On the whole, they seemed normal enough, although the football players were slightly duller than most. Those who made sport their top priority always seemed delusional to me, especially those who were on the football team. If there are around thirty-five teams and forty-five players per team, that means 315 guys will eventually make some money when they finally make the ranks of professional play. Barring the illegal payments that flow to collegiate athletes, which I do not overlook completely, but which only serve to reward and model rule breaking as ethos, guaranteeing that the players who come out of collegiate sport are schooled in how to break rules and get away with it. In my state alone there are more than 315 high schools preaching to their athletes that if they work hard, hit hard and destroy the team on the other side of the ball, that they could be in for some big money when they make it to the NFL at the very least, if they work hard, play harder break whatever rules they can get away with and vanquish their "foes", that some college will at least give them a full ride scholarship. It is also a well-known fact that many of the colleges make "special payments" that can range into the tens of thousands of dollars per year to select athletes who hold promise as much needed young blood for their programs.

I apologize for going so far down this single path, but the sentiment extends to many areas deeply embedded in our culture. If you speak of these things to many in our culture, they screw up their faces as if you are a nut. Why would any of this matter? Why would the game be any less entertaining? Like the games in the Colosseum, many people wonder, if we eliminate this entertainment, what would we do instead? Many fans are completely happy using these events as an excuse to drink too much, snack for three hours straight and opt out of participation in meaningful discussion of any type. Just for fun, I once watched an NFL game with the VCR (video cassette recorder) set to record. Each time the ball was snapped I allowed the machine to record and each time the whistle blew, I paused the device. once the recording was made, the entire game, resembled rugby but only lasted a matter of minutes. Supposedly, the game is supposed to be an hour long and fans always argue this point, but what they neglect to realize is that the clock ticks away at several times that the players are not playing. The fact remains that it only takes a microsecond to permanently damage a brain.

In addition to the sporting world, we have agents that do nothing but police the population, looking for trouble skews their perspective radically. Imagine having to deal with criminals and criminality all day long every day. I know that I would be turned into a grumpy, self-righteous and aggressive bully if I were to go into this profession. Imagine the reality that exists in a sub-culture that can do no wrong, is always supported by the brotherhood of fellow officers and that "knows" where to look for illegal behavior. Much has been written about the fact that three times as many black men are incarcerated for drug crimes as white men, even though the use characteristic for the two groups is nearly identical. Boatloads of ink have been spilled documenting the fact that white collar criminals often get off scot-free while their blue collar cohorts pay the full price of their indiscretions. In my state we have an attorney general who condones illegal behavior as long as it takes place in the halls of power, is perpetrated by campaign donors and whose victims are the general public, so that everyone pays the price while his buddies come out ahead. Ultimately policing the masses and prosecuting them falls to those who feel that they are better suited to make decisions about the lives of others than they are themselves.

Many of these same complexes are at work amongst our doctors. After all, we would not be coming to them for help if we could manage our lives appropriately on out own. Several of my relatives have worked in the hospital and they all have mentioned  that no one dies on the operating table. If there is a cadaver that is in that particular room, they are quickly wheeled into the recovery room before being pronounced dead. This assures that the doctor keeps his record clean. Likewise, in the maternity wards, every intervention possible is made as quickly as possible, even though the fact is that a single procedure increases the likelihood of an array of further obstacles and impediments to the natural outcome. In court, if it ever gets to court, the doctors can say, "We did everything possible." In one of my former lives, I was a childbirth educator. The heap of lies that the whole medical establishment uses to exert power over us is understandable, but certainly not warranted. Tuning in to natural processes, or ultimately understanding them requires the opposite of what most scientific endeavors are seeking to do. Science slices and dices things into their component parts, examining each in turn, trying to understand the whole through close inspection of dislocated parts. In the realm of biology, we can plainly see that sliced and diced life cannot be reconstituted.

A very telling result of medical intervention is the almost instant visceral reaction that doctors have against what they call anecdotal studies. Anyone encouraging a different approach that has been successful can be written off completely and instantly by the use of this powerful word. However, if a patient of theirs takes a medication for their heart and by chance their acne clears up after starting treatment, they will often take that as proof that the drug works for acne. If they see a relationship, it has to be true, but if someone else has had luck using a specific treatment for a specific malady for years, it is still considered anecdotal.

We have similar issues in the ivory towers of our educational institutions, the social service agencies and the news media. Taking them on one at a time cannot wrest power from those who limit our freedoms or micromanage the laws which govern us. All of them must be taken down simultaneously. Luckily, there are young people coming up, who know more than the old farts who grew up on a steady diet of hatred and misunderstanding. We must educate one another on these points or we run the risk of losing even more freedoms to those who seek to oppress us. Giving more and more of our autonomy away in the hopes of becoming safer can only lead to constraint of options that are necessary to adapt to changing conditions.

I would like to know what people from around the world think about these issues, please comment.

Since discovering how to make my own char, I am now liberated from buying charcoal. I built a retort in which to bake wood without oxygen. My superior product to what is sold in most markets also yields a soil enhancement for the garden at extremely low cost. Biochar provides fourteen acres (5.66 ha) of surface area for each handful added to the soil.

Suffering Slings and Arrows

The shit slinging and piercing comments that we endure daily from our elected officials prove only one thing, that they are completely out of touch with what is needed in this day and age. Here in the United states of America, we are coming into mid-term elections. Those who have the most power over our daily lives are about to be elected by the slimmest segment of the population assuring that a micro-minority of votes will give them their unwarranted power. For a series of reasons, including, but not limited to our lack of education about our own political system, rampant media ignorance, growing desire to not take responsibility for our plight, an unhealthy disrespect for the electorate and pathological focus on the Presidency that makes us forget about the hundreds of local representatives that make decisions daily that affect our lives. The first Tuesday in November is election day and over the past twenty years of working as an election official, I have seen an average of seventeen percent of the registered voters show up for these elections.

This explains precisely why the minority, the hateful bigots and obstructionists have unleashed so much money on taking over state houses across our nation. It is the sucker punch of politics, many never saw it coming. The current slate of freshman representatives were elected on a single issue. They sincerely believe that the government itself is to blame for every ill, not the greedy bastards who paid to get them into office. They seem to be oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of government welfare flows to the folks making six figures or more. Somehow, the delusion perpetrated upon them by their masters has taken on the aura of fact and their ideas about who is to blame for our current economic malaise keeps coming back to age-old relics of decades past. The corpulent, cigar smoking fools have invited in a new breed of closed-minded idiots to help buoy them in this tumultuous time, but just because some of them are skinny white chicks and wide-eyed and blinking athletic-looking types, their vulgar hatred and unwarranted attacks are no less detrimental to the average citizen.

The poor seem to be the most put upon by this class of "leader" because they are not only encouraged, but required to a firm set of self-loathing values to fit in with the political perspective. Not only are they attacked by the price gouging elites, but they are exploited as a class of legal slaves as well, putting in so much time to make ends meet that they also have to be led by the ring in their noses to the idea of "quality time" with their children, spouses and families. The mechanical advantage delivered by the long lever arm of hearsay, pushing on a fulcrum of staunch end-times philosophy exert maximum pressure on the wage slaves of our nation and beyond our national borders as well. The seething coals of hatred are routinely fanned by the lies of our ruling elite. Those who see through the ruse are labelled every sort of bad word, often exhibiting a complete lack of awareness that our points are valid. Demonizing the enemy is a technique as old as the hills, but in our nation, which tries to sell itself as the crucible for democracy, it is most unwelcome.

Pitting neighbor against neighbor when the true enemies are funding the campaigns for seats of power is like clipping your toenails to get fresher breath, or to grow a more full head of hair. The exploited classes have far more in common with one another than any two billionaires, but what the poor and disenfranchised lack is a shared strategy. The wealthy know the rules of engagement for class warfare and always have each other's backs. Recognizing that we have been beaten down for nearly the entire length and breadth of recorded history is at once demoralizing for some, but can be inspirational for many. In this fact lies the truth of our current situation and the hope for change that many seek. The fact that we, as a people, have already withstood the mass casualties of elites making war upon our union organizers, banded together to call for more ecological justice and the massive campaigns to secure safe food that we can trust to be healthy and safe. Many victories have come, but this is why the ruling elite feel so threatened now. They are gearing up for the biggest fight of their lives and if you know anything about the human spirit, tenacity is what makes us thrive under difficult situations. The rich, the bigots and those filled with hatred will not give up their guns without a fight to the death.

They love to fight according to their own rules and frequently implore us to look the other way when truth is unfolding in front of our eyes. The media is controlled by a handful of conglomerates and the cameras are pointed at only the things that will inspire fear and confusion, allowing them to keep more of us hiding in our homes, lest we take to the streets in protest. We are kept busy working multiple jobs to make ends meet for a reason. How many old hippies have you spoken with that have said, "After working twelve hour shifts all week, I just don't have the energy to go to a rally, write a letter to the editor or call my Congressman."? How many of these folks follow that up that with "All I want to do when I get a day off is to lay around, relax, have some wine and I'll be lucky to get the grass mowed."?

I believe that this is why so many resort to the finger pointing and ridicule of folks they know nothing about. Like the child's watercolor palette, only having a few choices is easier than truly discovering the full range of color that is out there in the world around us. What is desperately needed at this time in our history is a way to understand that we are indeed all in this together and that just because everything that we see has been exploited and objectified by the current ruling elite, we do not have to live our lives for them, we do not have to sacrifice our families to them and we certainly do not have to stay away from the polls to placate them. The time has come to reacquaint ourselves with the important things that we have, what we bring tot he table and to not participate in the demise of our own nation. We have all been hurt by the system that exists now, but suffering is a choice that we make. Standing up for our rights will require more responsibility, but the pay off is to get a portion of our lives back, to rediscover our dignity and to affirm the fact that we are all deserving of respect.

The pawns have always outnumbered the kings and we need to understand that without our own needs getting met, we are sacrificing the long-term health and welfare of our species to enrich an almost infinitesimal minority.

Tomorrow Is My Birthday

Not that it matters to anyone else, but at this time of year, when the veil thins most completely between the living and the dead, I annually relinquish my preoccupation with the living, trying to create more and better conditions for them and working for the betterment of friends, family and neighbors and get down to the brass tacks of honoring those whose spirits, now released from physical limitations, still guide my actions, inform my understandings and inform my decision-making process.

In honor of their coming before, setting the stage for my performance, and their eternal being, I still my own desires, thoughts and feelings and listen intently to what they still say to me, even though it is on the wisps of wind, the rustle of falling leaves and the steel black skies punctuated with portals of blue. I presume that when they look down at me from their unbounded realm, they are amused by my routine scurrying across the days, seeking resources to share, loving, living in essence like a mouse who only sees the adjacent few inches around them, only feeling what my whiskers touch and they must feel a form of pity.

I loosen my ties with the physical world each year around these times, feeling my body heat escaping, shutting down and relinquishing ties to things that often bind me to this world and letting go of moorings that keep me in the "safe" harbor of physicality. This process often comes to a crescendo under the full moon closest to the annual rites at the end of October. For many years, I took on the character of Jacob Marley's Ghost. His few lines to Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol are, for me, some of the most poignant in all of literature. "I forged these chains in life" each link an opportunity squandered. Keeping this sentiment in out hearts through all of our days can serve us well.

Actions truly speak louder than words, so for now I must part company with you, reader, I have to affect changer in the world. I only hope that you will choose to do the same, leaving in your wake a bit more happiness, a bit more camaraderie, a measure of comfort that could not have flourished without your passing across the face of the Earth in this time. The love we feel for one another is only constrained by time and space while we inhabit our fragile personages. At some point, in the not too distant future, we will merge once again with the eternal and pass the veil ourselves. If we live thoughtfully and committed to doing our best for the good of all, perhaps people of future generations will appreciate our gifts enough to revere us during the autumn of their time. what we each bring to the miracle of life is completely and utterly up to us. Making the best of it is easier when we stand on the shoulders of giants.

On the autumn nights air, if you listen, the soft murmurings of loving spirits who invested their all in our potential can be heard, punctuated by the calls of owls and informed by the frosty fingers of death, reaching out, feeling for us all. Responding to them with the honor and respect they are entitled to costs nothing but our juvenile belief that "we" are immortal. A recognition that our bodies are but transients in this space and inspiration to renew our vows to make what we can of the short time we are here. Experiencing the season has always been a powerful birthday gift. May the powerful spirits that have come before, guide you through all of your days.

The Most Invested Reader

On an ocean of language I float, clinging to the flotsam and jetsam of words, bound together by my own creative approach to problem solving. The yoga master, like an author, can become unstuck in time and space. When writing consumes me, it is akin to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, I can say exactly where or exactly when, but never both. It is as if infinite energy has slammed into an immovable object. Time and space both merge into a new time signature, reflected through myriad shapeless forms, a plasma of neither measure or duration. Coming back from this sort of mash up can be challenging, but in so doing, we can advance others as well as our own understanding of what matters most, and what has the power to create life rather than destroy it.

My Birth Moon

Heather is a great friend and artist, her work appears here to point out the abundantly fertile nature of the Maiden, Mother, Crone. In this time of the thinning veil, we must say goodbye to many who have crossed over the river Styx, but we must also renew commitments to honor them in our daily choices. It is the Pagan New Year and as such, we can resolve to improve our lives, daily,  in the new year, relinquishing ties to what no longer serve us or our communities. We only have one freedom left, that is the freedom to choose what we will do next.

Long before I heard that "witches and pagans" celebrated their entire moon of birth, which was for me, during my college years, I had celebrated the entire moon of October. I really didn't have a full concept of either of those prejudicial terms, but I figured that if I had "tuned in" to a perspective inherent in the, message I received, witch and pagan could have been seen as pejorative. Vagaries of chance being what they are, perhaps it was just coincidence. The longer I attend to the issue, the more convinced I am that the derogatory tone taken by my informant, whilst teaching me that fact was because of her own limited perception, not the ways or beliefs, of those who were being taken out of context. Those of us that live by an Earthen Calendar are hopefully not bound by deceptive prejudices, eternal exploitation (like that of missionaries), those who would exploit us, nor the money-lenders who amass fortunes at the expense of others. We believe in relationship with all that is, not just what we have instruments calibrated to detect. I knew that, then, but had no words to capture the depth or breadth of my feeling that Mother Earth was alive, her stirrings were in me, as were those of Father Sun, (son) Sister Sky, Grandma Moon, and the ancient ones who light the night sky. We are one. We are stardust.

October has seen many of my most profound insights, the celebration of the cusp between Scorpio and Libra, for me takes on mythic proportion. As it should, perhaps, because my grandstanding nature and love for the stage are curiously tied to seeking balance and justice, if that is possible in this world. Just once, I would like to be listened to on the subject of Ecological awareness. As we defile our nest, the world, we sow the seeds of pain and mystery, taking lethal doses of carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic substances, often without thought. The Day of the Dead, the Hallows Eve, Pagan New Year, Saturnalia, they all begin after the last harvest. This death of self, sustenance and surroundings has often led me into a learning or health crisis and ultimately to a more humble state, having had the life of eternity wash through me. It is always well to remember, the same noble gasses that waft into our lungs today are the exact same ones that dinosaurs breathed 60 million years ago. The oldest material on earth is about 4.4 billion years. In the arc of time, we humans occupy an infinitesimal small moment. 2000 generations or so.

Late summer yields to early fall in my hemisphere, The days shorten significantly, and thoughts of nesting create a frenetic pace. Like my friends, the squirrels, who are caching as many nuts as possible, I too am tying up loose ends on as many projects as I can, confounded daily as the darkness clamps down earlier each night. The balance point I have found, much to the chagrin of my teachers and elders, lies beyond the domain of capitalism, sexism or classism. I have lived the lives of many people, each one giving a unique perspective. The skeleton key of last harvest has unlocked fifty ways to be hollowed out, fifty times I have cycled through the season of death and honoring the ancestral homeland which we all inhabit eternally but for a brief moment in time, we are blessed with what we call "life".

It is at this time, that I consciously pare down, from the inside, like scraping out a pumpkin, loosing that which will birth the next generation. Hollowed out, however we feel it, (whether by loss, deprivation, depression or death of a feeling of "self") we become a more empty vessel for holding the wealth of the aeons. Some might classify it as the love of god, but there again is a limitation I am not comfortable with. I like to call the experience "Be-ing all that is." What my friend misplaced by definition was the "witch" terminology. What he meant had been contaminated by centuries of hate and fear, what I knew to be true circumvents anger and oppression. If I was born a pagan, how can someone tell me that their limits on eternity are suited for me? Along with that limitation, I would have to give up the infinite now and I cannot abide others trying to dissuade me from honoring the sanctity of the Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit which connects all beings.

I, the man who honors the beasts who become one with my flesh? The "I", who takes the stance that it is my responsibility to the organisms that serve my purposes be as comfortable and abundant as possible? "I", the being that is truly aware of Be-ing Stardust, arranged just so, to be miraculous? What of the human being who is self aware and infinitely humbled by being in touch with their chick side, but also has the experience of fathering several amazing children? Grandfather now, experiencing the stark reality of be-ing over halfway to 100. This transient "I" is not limited by any of the experiences that typically get used to describe our true self. It is beyond borders of experience, and multi-faceted. "I", defies even description by my available intellect, I am truly more than even that. Often in ways that, although explored to my fullest potential seem full of evermore possibility and potential. I'm just not sure how they connect to my future understanding. (yet.)

Each time I come through a learning opportunity, each time I recalibrate my awareness, I find that part of me thinks that this is the reality I will be confronted with forever, then things begin to shift and areas newly illuminated, become more clear that had existed behind a shroud. Like the idea of a sailing ship to the earliest humans confronting their first oppressors. They could not know what future awaited them. There are those among us who will forever learn and change their perspective. Some feel more comfortable knowing only one true thing, disbelieving all else. I beg the people of the world to begin to piece together a new way of thinking, of being and of relating what it is that we see, staring coldly into our eyes. Re-thinking what is plausible under the constraints of modern times, has to take center stage in political debate, in social justice circles, in the world religions and amongst the proud pagans who have been here all along. Our freedom ends where the next person's nose begins. When we reach out, into community, we always want it to be from a place of love.

My regular readers know that I often say, "Ultimate freedom requires infinite responsibility." The infinite abundance of the planet relies on the ability of each of us to interface with our ecological niche  as gracefully as possible. Building, throughout October I feel my blood run through the ages, perhaps my own soul links with many of the old souls who have learned far more than I ever will, but for moments and weeks I cultivate relationship with the elders who brought me life, murmured and spoke stories of all that was know in their time, and graced me with my time on Planet Earth. The old me that I shed each cusp of my birth, informs the next "me", yet the truest nature of who I am expands further, inhabiting a more joyous and fecund harmony. As I age, I continue to find way to lessen the negative impacts on the planet, while enriching the community. I pledge my existence to sharing this belief in the future, this utter giving of myself to the moment, relying on cosmic eddies to carry this impetus  of love and affection through The Universe unbound by time.

I honor and respect the circles of life, of time and of water, nutrients, energy, all of it, but the circle of our own days is as far as many of us need to go to find a time-signature of life that resonates with our soul. Birthdays, or Birth Moons are often a great time to plant trees, especially if you were born in Spring or Fall. October is usually a busy time for tree planting and spreading seeds. The time signature of this form of give back might take twenty or thirty years to mature, but millions of collateral benefits will accrue to all humans and animals who inhabit the environment while the benefit increases.

Harmony can be seen by others, but can only be felt by individuals, mine comes from honoring and respecting the cusp during which I made my first appearance in the world. One show stopped and mine started during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so many years ago. Each year my transformation has been as complete as caterpillar to butterfly, although not in a physical way. One year I saw clearly a triad of competing interests, another I was deeply and profoundly changed forever by friends who were deeply worthy of respect, another year it was the death of the "savior" that I had felt the need to become. Each October, my costuming of that person I call myself, has released another part of me, taking a rightful place amongst the discarded images that fail to capture who I truly am.

Some may want to look down their noses at me for my beliefs, I will always honor the sanctity of all living things, as well as Gaia (if you want to call it that), but the realms that I take in stride are perceived as alien minefields to many, who turn off their perceptual apparatus. I cannot say for sure that I am on the "right track" but I can say truthfully that I have never felt a need for much of and many of the things that people claim as their doctrine. Many rituals and rites do for me something that would be scary to them, to me they are physically linking me to the energies of place, grounding and cleansing my perceptual apparatus. In fact, the most powerful rites which I have participated in of other "religions" were wholesale lifting of pagan traditions for their use. Especially if we have pretty much the same rites and rituals, can't we just all get along? Justice demands that we make sure not one of us gets hurt by the other cavalierly running over our rights. I will attempt to make sure that my reverie during this moon hurts no one.

Codified Narcisism

In honor of the "government shutdown" here in the U.S.A., I feel that it is only right that I share a few thoughts on a problem that underlies this once great nation. Years ago, if you were an uneducated fool, a psychopath or sociopath, the vast majority of our population knew enough to discount your ridiculous raving, your bad mouthing of "the system" or random attacks on innocent people trying to make a living around you. We actually had a level of compassion for people hurting so bad inside that they had to lash out at the world around them. However, we knew enough to not vote these bad actors into office. What we are facing down in the House of Representatives right now is a group of outliers so devoid of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required to participate in politics that they cannot understand or adapt to the responsibilities that come with holding office.

We have used a series of tools to keep them under the delusion that they are not only worthy of respect, but that they are "God's" gift to society, even though their actions reflect ruthlessness beyond compare. I often harp on the ruling elite, the monied class and the oligarchy in general and this post, sadly, will not be much different. To even mount a political campaign for the House of Representatives in our nation is something only multimillionaires can afford.. Winning a House seat in 2008 was 1.1 million. Four years down the road, with the Citizens United case that made it through the highest court in the land, money and donations to political campaigns is now considered speech, allowing the campaign coffers to swell exponentially with less and less oversight. Winning a senate seat is nearly ten times as expensive.

This is the "cost" of our current system from a direct financial cost perspective.

With the advent of taking idiots and assholes seriously, our governing bodies have been hurt terribly. In our current system, as long as you pay to play, the media will point their cameras at you and "reporters" will flock to your press conferences and spread the "news" in your press releases whether there is substance behind your words or not. This is akin to babies playing with their own shit. If you continuously reward them each time they "make" it and tell them that they have made a great thing, they will never get over their creations. We have developed a new sort of system that rewards obstructionist rhetoric, bases entire campaigns on single issues, a system that demonizes those who cannot afford to defend themselves and unwittingly props up the cult of ignorance with million dollar graft and corruption.

Thinking that the uber-wealthy will be content to sway politics in a single district is foolish on the face of it. The billionaire class uses these fools whenever and where ever they find them, with donations from large donors crossing as many state lines as their ruthless tentacles desire. The minions (our supposed representatives) are thoroughly convinced that it is their ideas that are valuable, their "stance" against cooperation and their "moral" values that the wealthiest Americans are lining up to fund. This is akin to the person who has been bruised and battered in a car wreck wandering around in shock telling people "No, I'm fine, I don't want to go to the hospital." These people are so in love with their image of who they know themselves to be, that it is difficult to tell them anything different.

If one tries to inject a little truth into their swollen, ego-driven self image, it is easy for them to brand you as a heretic, a "taker" (as they like to call those who they call "the problem" with our nation) or a litany of catch words or phrases that exempt them from having to consider anything but their illusions as real. We can see the ignorant, bigoted, hateful , spiteful and obstructionist representatives behaving badly in nearly every political debate, each evening on the nightly "news". We can read about them in the papers, yet the idea of them being horribly destructive to our nation, our political system and the rest of the world economy never seems to come up. The self-love that they must feel, combined with the funding of oligarchs, has created a master class of self love, lies, deceit, corruption and vehemence that makes Ronald Reagan seem tame.

The vast majority are being beaten into submission by less than one third of the Republican representatives to the House of Representatives. That body is only supposed to hold one half of one third of the power of our great nation, the childish fit that they are throwing is harming not only our country but the world economic system. However, the wealthiest class, who own the media outlets are still telling us that 10% of us believe that the President himself is to blame for the recent government shutdown. To those of us who try to make sense of the litany of lies and pablum that get passed off as news, this hardly seems possible when only one in twenty folks polled think that Congress is doing a good job.

When our forefathers first stepped onto this great continent, those who were here already had made their peace with the land. Since that time, it seems, we have gone to every effort to rape and destroy this place. Virtually nowhere can we find a spot that has not suffered at the hand of "development", not been exploited for profit, not sustained irreparable damage for the sake of profiteers. Letting those same interests steal our elections will surely be the ruin of all that is left.

The New Holocaust

We have done a grave disservice to one another. We have all been complicit in the horror of our current state of affairs. Instead of standing up and telling the ruling classes that we will not stand for carcinogenic compounds being released onto the soil, into the air and water, ultimately making their way into our bodies, we have decided to participate in fundraising runs, buy rubber bracelets and to "bike for the cure". This is like going fishing but bringing no pole, no line and no hooks, just the bait. I know that I am not the only one who sees through the sham of spending billions on cancer research while simultaneously poisoning the environment.

I have dozens of friends who have passed the veil because they have been ravaged by cancer. I would guess that not one of us has been spared the heartache of losing a beloved friend or family member, perhaps a bunch of them to this disease. Is it always going to be easier to focus only on the hurt than to do anything about sparing one another from this exquisite pain?

Our species seems intent on hitting the wall. Like a fly in a speeding bullet train, about to hit an immovable object, we seem to be completely unaware that we are moving. Our entire environment is moving with laser speed into the future. We are on a collision course with destiny and after more than fifty years of rearranging the deck chairs on our sinking ship, we are no closer to plugging the gaping hole in the side of the hull than when we first began to dabble in the chemistry of death. The very first carcinogenic compound that we humans "discovered" was benzene. It is still a legal contaminant in gasoline. The earliest representation of the chemical was a serpent biting its own tail. Benzene is only one of many carcinogens that many of us are exposed to nearly daily. The irony is that when we put fuel in our automobiles, this carcinogen can be detected on our breath for up to six hours after we finish pumping our gasoline. The advent of "self-service" fuel depots came about because science could prove that service station attendants were getting lethal doses of the compound. We must each decide whether getting our own "fair" share is worth the cost.

My wife recently learned and related to me, that in the first six years that GMO(Genetically Modified Organism) crops have been authorized for use in the United States of America, emergency room visits because of food allergies have increased by 260%. It may just be the tip of the next iceberg, but we need to realize that all food worldwide is potentially GMO already. Pollen from these organisms can be carried vast distances on the wind and it has already been proven by Monsanto that organic growers have had their seed contaminated with patented genetic material.

 I once received a hefty fine because a roommate's mutt dog had been allowed to run loose, got with a show dog that belonged to a neighbor, and inseminated the bitch. My only crime was to call the dog home (Something, by the way, GMOs can never be) when I saw it run down our street. Now, I know many organic growers and they don't want their valuable seed to be contaminated by these rogue pollens, why should we protect a corporate outlaw who cannot control their pollen?

The elites that benefit from our combined suffering need to be held to task for their inhumane treatment of the rest of us, worldwide. From their nuclear debacle to the war machine, the powers that feed are parasites of our own blood, fanciful masters of those feeding the ovens of our own demise. Ont this day of souls, let the hallowed voices of those who have died from this disease speak though our combined action to stop the crazy drunken stagger into our own demise, step away from the abyss and return to a hospitable world in which we create out of the ruin of stupidity and healing the damage caused by genocide. Our entire race is in jeopardy because of the current tragectory.

I hope that it is not too soon after 9-11 to remember those days. I solemnly hoped that in the days following, when flights were canceled, that millions of "disrupted" people would realize that where they were was a pretty good place and that families and neighborhoods across the world, or at least our part of it, would be strengthened by the contact. For decades, when I saw traffic jams, I always imagined how wonderful it would be when all people to find ways to make their way through the world, without leaving "home". I have lived from the day when a handful of local markets existed within walking distance, now it is a mile (1.6Km) to the closest one, and it used to be the furthest away. During my youth, it was the largest, by far, and saved a few cents per item over the local grocers. All those pennies, after all those years, worked up some pretty good loyalty, but now the shoe is on the other foot, by driving five miles, or ten, those same savings could be had. With a mega-grocer, moving your money further from your neighborhood.

This is the economic state of affairs for virtually all of us is like a cancer, the pennies, and in many cases dollars are being siphoned out of the majority of the people, being extracted from this region, this city, this county and this state with mind-bending consequence. I hear the term The Richest Third World Nation On Earth and I think it should stick. Apparently, now, some Germans bring their children to Detroit to show them what Berlin looked like after the war. We have had perpetrated every form of injustice on our people for the enrichment of a cream of the cream of the crop and they are in full scale assault mode. They have been winning the class war for generations. We have only threatened revolt while stoned, or that is what they would tell you. The peace movement of the sixties and the efforts to reign in pollution were feeble at best and the long term data indicates that we are failing to limit releases of many hazardous chemicals. Again, like cancer this robs a vital being of essential nurturing to continue to exist, and the "person" we knew wastes away, vitality stolen from a dear one.

To re-seed the tree of life, this insidious tree of death needs to be pulled up by the root, or it will re-establish and threaten us again. Part of my ritual intentions this Sabbat, will be to unleash as much fury on the Agro-bio-chemical-financial/insurance-petro-industrial/military complex as possible. I want clarity to be established about planet rape, about biocide, about the rampant costs to each and every one of us for the financial gain of others. We have been forced by unimaginable powers of wealth and deceit to build the very instruments of our own destruction/demise. Just the other day on the news, they were touting how upgrading the infrastructure around a boat-building facility there would help the company to become more productive. We taxpayers will foot the bill fore more roads, more trucks, more traffic and do it gladly for the sake of the company. In their defense, the company can afford and has awesome equipment that greatly increases the health and safety of their workers, but the down side is that they pump the fumes further away, into the surrounding neighborhoods. So people who don't work there will pay in two ways for the sake of the corporation, first in taxes to make it bigger and then breathe even dirtier air.

For my friends, this holiday season, I just want to say in the words of good friend, James Baker, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, After we have tried every key, it is time to try the skeleton key.

Lest this post be mistaken for a scary one, this is like the black spot in the white side of the yin yang symbol. If humans did not have the power to be infinitely kind, there would be no humanitarians. If we did not have infinite capacity for acceptance, we could not turn our heads from this crisis. If we did not have hope, we would have surely crashed and burned as a civilization long ago. The actions we take, knowing that these cancers are there, engulfing us as I write this, burning away at the center of a swirling vortex of our lives, our neighborhoods, our families, our cities and towns. Our activity as a species reflects whether we will ultimately vanquish, or push back the nugget of evil at our core. Likewise, in the realms of the dark side, they try to overwhelm, but can never extinguish the light.

The only way out of our current state of affairs is to create new structures upon which we can be proud to hang our hat for generations. Many communities are fighting back against the extraction model by creating power co-ops, sharing in the cost of buying their electricity into the future, today. Much like our food buying club of old, we banded together to create our own store, one day each month. Ultimately, reparations need to be made, but how can one put a price on generations of pain and suffering of thousands of millions of direct victims their families, their communities, over many generations? Our lives truly have infinite value and sacrificing a single one for profit is not acceptable. Corporations are exacting death sentences upon all of us and we must all call for them, in unison to stop.