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Wednesday, February 3, 2021

COMPENDIUM

                                         
                                        
                                    
                               "she is awake"


COMPENDIUM

When a piece is in its final form  

INDEX

SECTION 1   

A  NEW SQUARE DEAL

1-1-1      THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION

1-1-2      MARKET SOCIALISM

1-1-3      LIBERTARIANS

1-1-4     NON-PROFIT BANKING

1-1-5     THE NEW SQUARE DEAL

1-1-6     MARXISM IN AMERICA

1-1-7     SOCIALISM IS FOR LOSERS

1-1-8     CONVERSATIONS WITH CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATIONISTS,

1-1-9     THIRD PARTY OR BUST

  

SECTION 2

HISTORY OF THE PAGANS

1-2-1     THE STONE PEOPLE

1-2-2     DO AS YE WILL

1-2-3          THE MEEK

1-2-4           SOUL/VIEW/SECRET RITE

1-2-5          ANGELS AT THE INTERSECTION

1-2-6          THE PEOPLE OF THE SHORT CORN

1-2-7          PAGAN MILLENIUM 

1-2-10      Vikings Druids and Darwin

1-2-11      TAROT IN THE PARK

1-2-12      TAROT FOR NEWBS

1-2-13       THE WAY OF THE BIRDS

1-2-14        OXOHEARTSVOKEN

SECTION 3  THE EARTH  MOVEMENT

1-3-1     CALLED THIRD STRIKE

1-3-2     BIOREGIONS

BOOK 2    UNITED SCAPES

SECTION 4    LIBERTY IS THE VANGUARD

2-4-1     FRAMING YOUR OWN NARRATIVE

2-4-2       WHO ARE THE WHITE PEOPLE?


SECTION 5     A BRACING DOSE OF HERESY


SECTION 6 MYTH SEEKS TRUTH

2-6-1VENUS AND THE FIRST HUMAN SOUL


      Warning     

        I am responsible for what I have written, not for what you think I wrote, or meant.  Simply stated, the opinions expressed herein, may at times resemble facts, therefore… always double and triple check before you let incorrect facts loose on the internet with millions of undisciplined minds on the loose.

         I believe it is a consensus that we seek, not confrontation, and I look for reforms that all sides can agree with. The ultimate sad reality on earth is that there are billions of people living in misery on what was once a bountiful, clean planet.  It’s as simple as that.  Once it was ours and it will be ours forevermore if the working people wake up. Capitalism And Communism have failed and we need a new set of governing principles.

        Let me guide you around some of the seemingly intractable dilemmas of our modern era and offer solutions, and please be willing to contemplate new perspectives, because the 
   voter/citizen/worker needs to lead now,  

       and follow no longer.     

  1/1/1   THE DAWN OF                  CIVILIZATION 1

"Try as they might to make the mass murder acceptable and patriotic, deep in our collective American hearts, we know war is wrong."

 

Americans demand recreation areas,  protected forests, estuaries and parks nationally, and walking trails locally. They appreciate being supplied with good facilities during their travelling adventures, in this wonderfully expansive system of national and state parks in the United States. This notion would seem logical for a country that includes "the pursuit of happiness" in its mission statement, the preamble to its Constitution. Then why does 800 billion dollars go to The Pentagon every year, and only three billion goes to the national park service?                                      

          Apparently, making a fleet of eighty MILLION dollar fighter jets was much more important than anything nature has to offer. This is what the government is telling us with this lopsided budget. Why should taxes go to a park ranger explaining the difference between red squirrels and brown squirrels during a guided tour? How is THAT a priority?

What about the supply and demand in our economy that the Republicans are always whining and braying about? Our National Parks have a dearth of facilities and maintenance is spotty, but crowds continue to grow. There is a big demand from the people of America,  --- the supply part of supply and demand, you know. Park expansion, safety and the preservation of ecological diversity has been subverted by corporations that profit from war, and by the army of corporate lobbyists in Washington. 

    THE PEOPLE WANT PARKS NOT WAR.


The American people and visitors from around the world,  are out there trying to have a grand vacation visiting the great places of America, only to find stinky bathrooms, traffic jams, and tour guides swamped with crowds. Not only are you creating recreation for today when land is purchased and preserved, but wild space for ever and ever.  Pondering all this, how does upgrading to 150 million dollar fighter jets ever make sense?

                  It makes sense because everyone has gotten fat off the government the last sixty years, and now they slap "my guns my god and my money…you keep the change",  bumper stickers on their cars, not realizing the markets that government encouraged created their prosperity, from markets as diverse as Dairy and Nuclear Energy.  The capitalists slipped America a roofie, 60 years ago, and have not stopped ravaging her. They can't believe that no one has stopped them, so they keep taking from her, rapidly poisoning our earth with their newest degradation called Fracking.

                   Making weapons and selling weapons is profitable. Creating wars to destroy them, so they can make more, made these phony wars enormously profitable.  Making weapons is a dirty income and many of todays tea baggers profited, and perhaps you are profiting also, with your investments. Now that they’ve got their pensions and social security, the senior Teahadists are quickly closing the barn door so no one else can share this wealth, which they stole directly from our natural resources.  One entire generation destroyed more forests than any other generation and profited wonderfully from the drastic reduction of resources. The cost of paper products was artificially cheap enabling an illusion of prosperity.

Dear reader, if you invest, then divest of your poison stocks. It is time to think about all life on this earth that will be here the next million years. Invest Green best you can. Invest clean. The Market Socialism of the Green Movement needs to be regulated as little as possible.  We agree with Conservatives on this one. Raw milk producers want regulations eased but Big Dairy is firmly in the driver's seat. A long battle lay ahead in many different places. The sterile poison seed of corporate farmers get subsidies, yet small organic farmers have many regulatory hurdles to leap; and certifications to achieve.

 War is good for the economy, it creates JOBS we were told our entire childhood. "World War 2 lifted us out of the depression", is another myth that has become reality. The truth was that the explosion of innovations after WW2 was actually possible because of all the scientific improvements that had been made in the 1930's. In radio, refrigeration, electricity,  and many other areas of research.  Invention and innovation and knowledge rapidly expanded in the Thirties; a real prosperity was emerging and  lively cultures were booming again, in many cities, then WW2 disrupted everything. Good times with positive momentum were on the way, as the world retooled itself after the Great Depression. 

Instead, we are told the Big War created prosperity, when all it really did was create devastation and misery. Brainwashing of the highest order, World War 2 being good for the economy is a complete lie, but 80% of Americans believe it. Reducing our 800 billion dollar a year Pentagon budget would "make us weak" and "could wreck the economy" we are told in 2021. America spends as much as the next ten countries combined on the military, how stupid do they think we are?


 Do you truly believe we are preserving American freedom by the wars in Korea, Vietnam and proxy wars in Central America, and 2 wars with Iraq and the furthest away of all, and the longest war, Afghanistan? War may help the Gross National Product and is lucrative for people with stocks in weapon manufacturing and oil companies, but it doesn’t work in real life anymore, unless you are getting a pension from your Weapon maker job. If your conscience doesn't propel you to divest and boycott  companies that pollute our planet or degrade any part of humanity, then the falling stock prices of companies that come under fire as regulators investigate fraud, surely will make you sell those stocks.  Falling stock prices of companies that are effectively boycotted will be another incentive.

Try as they might to make mass murder acceptable 

and patriotic, deep in our collective American hearts 

     we know it’s wrong.  

 

The Greatest Generations antiquated notions of how everyone has their place, was put to the test and failed in the 60's.  The boomers saw this world filled with racism and sexism that existed with our young hopeful eyes, and collectively our disgust level was so high, that things have changed in the last 50 years. Thank you to all who have stood up for equality, you are the actual patriots. 

Why couldn’t a black dude or a woman be hired for any job? Why not pay the woman the same as a man? Whazzup with that? We didn’t get it.

        Will there ever be a disgust level with war, which will help us change? Not until societies embrace the feminine, it seems. Women are always trying to fit in, but most cultures do not mix the masculine and feminine very well. How can a smooth polarity of the masculine and feminine be achieved, as cultures constantly chafe as an exuberant maleness continues to slow  us down. Incivility and brutality is the result of the warrior elites dominance of most societies the last 2500 years. The incivility and wildness of our culture is not the primitive paleo wildness we have forgotten, but the authoritarian despotism of manipulative men, and the fealty of the sycophant chumps that ring their bell. This has led to a false patriotism, the War without end.  Always enemies to kill, God bless you.

          America is here as a place for you to breathe free, to be anything but ordinary if you choose, and to help hold the light of liberty for all who strive for freedom. I encourage all countries to create new covenants with their people to create equality and freedom. For people that want to escape repression, we need to create safe havens. Not a global order, but decentralized spheres of influence with minimum standards for all to follow voluntarily.  

We must upgrade our earth manners and safety nets for all people. Your good efforts will be returned threefold as the momentum of all of us working toward a humane humanity, is finally with us. It is the darkest before dawn.

          The theme to most American movies, the good guy wins in the end, is all fine and dandy, but they have all been pyrrhic victories.  Life has to be more than vanquishing enemies. They won’t be real victories till we can encode liberty, embed equality, ostracize criminality , humble the mighty, invalidate injustice and vanquish cruelty in all the countries in the worldLet’s give ourselves the chance for a new  start, with the rejection of violence, and we will usher in, at long last, The Dawn of Civilization. All of us together in every country: Out of many, one; Unity without hierarchy. We are ready.

THIS is my suggestion for a 28th amendment Henry David Thoreau, "A free and enlightened State recognizes the individual as a higher and independent power, from which, all its own power and authority are derived." 

1-1-2  MARKET SOCIALISM 

 

   “ ....anarchy is the absence of coercion ....”

 

     The road to anarchy will not be a chaotic anarchy as you have been led to believe, but anarchy as self-rule in our various communities and keeping common local markets open for small business and household industry. Now that the rich have saved up trillions of dollars in hidden off shore accounts, we can use this stolen labor (profit) to create the Infrastructure Initiative  (II)

Envision something great for every one of us to use in the next 50 years in an expanded and expansive health and transportation infrastructure. A beautiful and enduring hardscape, and finally, wildlife corridors for migrating wildlife and MORE LAND PRESERVED FOR THE THOUSANDS OF GENERATIONS TO COME.  You’ve seen the trail cams and how often these under and over passes facilitate wildlife migration.

  We can create abundance with a new economic system that isn’t dependent on excessive resource extraction or tanks in Afghanistan that get three gallons to the mile. $400 dollars to supply one gallon of gas for every piece of equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan and an average of 500,000 gallons a day. This wasn’t about terrorism more than it was about selling gasoline.

 

We also need to knock aside the languid and miasmic  political will of the Democrats the last 25 years, and let’s have a go at a New America.   The Republicans want to eliminate things we all own in common such as the National Parks so their rich overlords will prosper and eventually own everything. As I like to say, don’t confuse Socialism with common sense and there is no war but class war.

 


It’s time to roll ‘em up and get down to work to preserve our wild lands forever, and this is the last chance for you Democrats in 2020, because we'll have a third party otherwise.

As of this writing, the President is appointing corporate parasites and neo-lib war hawks. Consequently, spurned Progressives hunger for battle. The neo-libs have no idea what’s coming for them and when they see that the Progressives have the general public behind them on most issues, it will be a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. Or a window through which a significant third party emerges.

 

The Infrastructure Initiative II, will be initiating the construction of a tremendous hardscape infrastructure with immense areas set aside for barter and small business. Down here in the underpaid working world, we have adjusted in many ways to the vagaries of the market. Capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich is the system we have.

Bankruptcy and foreclosure? Aw, too bad say the bankers who are gouging the American worker with interest. Should be a crime, it used to be. Tens of trillions of dollars charged in interest by bankers to the detriment of American workers. 

For instance, in a world awash in excessive clothing manufactured by 25 cent an hour workers, we go to thrift stores now to buy much of our clothing in 2021. I buy three dollars shirts and pants on the regular and they are normally only nominally worn.     We go to Dollar Stores and church rummage sales and reliable second-hand exchanges.

We love bargains, but, let the buyer beware with the guy that has the frozen shrimp in his trunk, we all have our particular discernments.

The whole scene is changing from below.  There are more distribution sites from groups that are taking in food.   If you can turn over a ton of food with volunteer labor in thousands of sites, you have accomplished something real without government bureaucracy.

 We can begin to lessen the reliance on government programs and eliminate as much waste as is practically possible. The problem with the bush and t***p tax cuts for billionaires, was that the wealthy were theoretically supposed to step up with more charitable donations, and of course a handful have, but the dark heart of capitalism always says, “no thanks not today, the guest house needs new furniture.”

 

 

My point being is that we are drifting back towards buying locally sourced products again, Market Socialism, if we possibly can. We are buying hand-made quilts for xmas presents and reconditioned bicycles for birthdays.

The over credentialed, over certified white-collar world isn’t going to rule us with their stuffed and mounted academic validations forever. We can and are creating a Market Socialism structure that won’t require stockholders and white-collar parasites. 

  The Flat Tax Initiative; I would have each person exempt from taxation for the first 10,000 dollars of income, and $25,000 for small business.  20% flat tax for all individual income above $100,000 and business income over a million per year. In addition, we would lift the cap on social security from $106,000 to $ gazillion.

Let everybody make a little money … for crying out loud and give them food stamps if they need them and every person who has no permanent address but a social security number, a basic income of $300/month as a start. Make the Republicans fill the social security fund back up. Let the billionaires give back what they stole from the languid, complacent, servile, no longer unionized American. See how that works?

  Socialist Eugene Debs actually went shoulder to shoulder with the workers and spent nights in jail as needed.  Progressive ‘fightin’ Bob LaFollette, in his role as governor of Wisconsin in 1900, actually implemented Progressive Pro Worker ideals into action and reform.

    There are no other theorists for the workers revolution? How about someone who goes outside once in a while and recognizes an impending environmental disaster when they see it. People simply don’t talk about marx down here in the working world and I’ve worked in three corners of this country and have talked to thousands of people from all demographics.

    Plumbers and gardeners and property managers and security guards and janitors, administrators and store managers and even homeless people I find sleeping in the bushes. Not a one of them talked about Marx. The working people don’t talk about Marxism, they talk about what is going on in their life.

The maids, the sandwich makers, the floor polishers, the CNA’s, your finishers your starters, the kitchen crew and clerical staff. Gardeners get around, we are usually the last to go onto a project and people still working the site unload their problems on us. There’s the ferry captains, the car washers turned computer techs, the vegetable growers and organic chicken egg producers. 

I can’t ever remember anyone talking about marx, but we did talk a lot about unions.  I saw a union go in, in 1975 and I watched the dudes that knew what they were doing advocate for wages and benefits that were equal to surrounding towns and they got it.

  America IS different and no longer exceptional with the right-wing coup eating us alive like a tapeworm and we need more than marx to stem the tide.   Small business has been destroyed and the same minimum wage for all will be the final nail in the coffin of small business but we could have a cap for small business as I mentioned previously. Call it an apprentice wage.

         Progressives, Greens and Independents are poised to lead the world out of its miasma but the left/right tennis match (back and forth back and forth and nothing gets done). Marx or Mussolini? The billionaires have shown their hand, and they don’t care if we all die and everyone knows it now.  They are stripping the earth without regard to the economies of the future.

         Marx or Mussolini?  What will it be? The Left has to abandon Marx to gain any credibility with the American worker, that’s all I’m saying. On the right, the GOP is what Mussolini had in mind. Braying sycophants for corrupt authoritarianism allied with corporatism.

The billionaires have shown their hand, they’ve chosen Benito’s corporate-run government and they don’t care if we all die and everyone knows it now.  They are stripping the earth without any regard to the 100 billion people that will be born on this planet during the next 5000 years.

The workers revolution will be inevitable once the Steam Age academics of Marxism have been replaced and the Republicans are deloused and deprogrammed from the brainwashing of Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes’ Fox News.
           How do you like that? We need unionism, not Marxism. Marx is insightful, but not useful. Does he really have to be the face of socialism? A man who didn't work or bathe? People are not inclined to malign Marx online and I don’t know why not, I know I will get
heat for my stance. Nearly every commie has unfriended me on FB. The city slicker Liberals are not crazy about what I post either.
         I do know an American will never call themselves a communist. Sorry Tom and others, I’ve worked with a lot of people in three corners of this country and Americans will never call themselves communists. Never.

 

 

 

 

 

Down here in the underpaid working world we have adjusted in many ways to the vagaries of the market. Capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich is the system we have.

  

 

 

 

 

  Make a showcase for ending government intrusion of the marketplace with  market based community centers. Then again, why can't I sell produce from my house? Land of the Free? It doesn't sound like it. We are strangling from an over-tweaked, law debilitated paralysis that destroys too many small businesses and keeps communities separated socially. 

  Make a showcase for ending government intrusion of the marketplace with  market based community centers. Then again, why can't I sell produce from my house? Land of the Free? It doesn't sound like it. We are strangling from an over-tweaked, law debilitated paralysis that destroys too many small businesses and keeps communities separated socially.  We are dependent on 8 companies to feed us, fuel us, fleece us and forget US. The four F’s.

          


1-1-3 

        LIBERTARIANS

                                              

“trust is the essence of anarchy”

         

              The Blue Ridge Parkway is a marvel of engineering, construction, recreation and conservation. Very limited signage like “overlook ahead” or Pine knob 3728 ft., and no stop lights for 469 miles.

          After I realized the GPS voice was bringing me to Dalton Campground in Virginia, and not Doughton Campground near Sparta North Carolina, I got on the Parkway finally, and began to search for a place to camp out. When I got to Doughton Campground, I fell in love with site #77 and stayed for 6 days of a 16-day vacation.  

        

          When I first got there, three choppers roared by at eye level after they were leaving the disaster area that was the North Carolina coast after Hurricane Florence.  Even Interstate 95 got washed out. I was ready to expect the unexpected. The Blue Ridge Parkway had only opened two days previous in North Carolina after trees were cleared from the road. Sawdust everywhere and trunks in piles by the side of the road.  There’d been a bear in the park recently too, so I decided to sleep in my rented Jeep. 

 

      I was able to set up and get a fire going. This was a chance to truly relax and the last mountain I saw was Stone Mountain in Georgia ten years previous. I enjoy Floridas great weather but it is as flat and green as people say it is. I had a moment of Zen listening to the many bird calls and crickets as nightfall approached and I sat with my eyes closed at the picnic table. Releasing my troubles to the breeze, I closed my eyes.

                 Boom! Boom! Boom! 
          It’s the Balrog! Beezledoom!

Out of my comfort zone, I sat up startled till I realized was just a drum circle over in area B, and it was a welcome addition to the night noise of birds or crickets.

 

                 There was also a squeaky thumping noise that I disregarded at first. By nightfall no one else had parked in Area C. I had that whole further section of the campground to myself since people weren’t traveling the Parkway.

 

          Later on, I went to the bathroom to see what they had and didn't have and there it was again, gears gnashing…a loud mechanical noise... Invasion from Mars?  Were Robots clambering up the side of the knob I was camping at?  Later after walking to the bathroom to rinse off the days dirt and grime, I realized it was a water pump.  

          It was an excellent bathroom with sinks of course and a water spigot about a foot above the floor, for taking a French shower or whatever cleanup you had to do. No lights in the building but a solar powered light outside so you could see the place on a foggy night.    

 

 

Then I got to wonderin' how would a Libertarian get hundreds of gallons of water a day to this remote bathroom?  The bathroom is a sacred place when you're camping for a couple of days or more.  The answer is, they wouldn’t.

          They wouldn’t build a campground that every day working class people could afford.  These are the kind of people who objected to a Postal Service that would deliver to every single house in this country, so people could stay in touch and important communications could happen. Oh no, privatize it. Delivery trucks zooming by every day instead of a predictable delivery time and complete system the USPS has.
Before that, they objected to bringing electricity to rural areas. 
The skint bastards that squeeze a penny so hard, it makes Lincoln cry.

 

 

Some years ago a rich dude built a road to the top of Mount Mitchell, which I visited towards the end a vacation and it was located down the road a piece a hundred miles down the Parkway. Bosses could afford the fee to the top and were also the first to have automobiles back in 1927 when this road opened. In time the state of North Carolina came in, and developed the services necessary that would allow everyone to enjoy the views from the Majestic Mt. Mitchell.
               Now I’m not a fan of big government, but I enthusiastically applaud the effort of the Democratic Socialists at that time that built such a remarkable road and often at heights of 3000 feet or more where cold arrives early.  The area is nearly unspoiled, and the Blue Ridge Parkway may be the last hope for the wild things in the Appalachians.

           Libertarians don’t think much about “the blessings of Liberty” or “the pursuit of  happiness” unless its for themselves. We need a government to cover the basics so there is less suffering among its people, and at least food and shelter for everyone. It wouldn’t cost that much. Just have a moratorium on building new jets or tanks. Sell a couple of embassies and military bases in places where the United States doesn’t belong.    Social Security extended the lives of millions of seniors but they are still grousing about it.

           The Park Service needs to double its budget, and you know, sell a tank or something. Reduce the CIA by 25%.  What about supply and demand GOP? We demand recreation but are supplied with war instead.  A country by the frat boys, for the frat boys, and of the frat boys. Stop giving rich senators their Agricultural subsidies, their million-dollar paychecks for not growing crops. There are many ways to starve the beast called Oligarchy. To save America we have to save the land along with the liberty and justice for all that the essentials.

 Then I got to thinking about Pilot Mountain that I had visited the day before, and I wondered how the Libertarians would manage that park. The sign that says: hikers below, do not throw rocks. Gone, that’s no fun being careful and courteous. The no alcohol in the Park directive? That's a silly Liberal rule by sissy men of today. “How do you like your steak sir,” the waiter asked. “Next to my other steak” was the reply from the macho posturing pinhead. 

 

Fences that prevent people from falling down the cliff would never get fixed. There’d be drinking parties “We have to go kids, the Libertarians are here.”  They’d be shooting the crows that use the mountain for resting, after gliding and hunting.  Learn what is good government and what is bad government.  

We can certainly reduce our military to 500 billion a year and dramatically increase mass transportation for everyone here in the homeland. We can have small-home villages for the homeless and the rarely homed or the nearly homeless, and create many more recreation areas, so people with homes can get out once in a while, and out into Nature and so can people living out of their cars.

 

I can’t say enough about the Doughton Campground and how it is laid out.  I had 100 acres of mature trees and steep slopes on three sides to enjoy. I didn't need to travel for hiking. I prefer, off the trail stuff where I won't get lost and lose my bearings. For someone stuck in Florida for 12 years, even a nearby naturally flowing streamlet was enjoyed immensely by me. Remarkable preservation along the whole Parkway was gratifying to see. Truly the ultimate forest experience for someone like me who doesn't want to hike 6 miles to get a view.

The network of roads at Doughton Campground is organized and not filled with signs for the idiots, as is the entire Blue Ridge Parkway.  I didn’t see any police or ambulances or fire trucks either in 6 days. I can’t imagine what the Rhododendrons that hang over the road are like in the spring.  Breathtaking falls short in describing The Blue Ridge Parkway, and that is what I’m thinking about when I try to imagine what a large infrastructure project would look like. Build it and they will come.

Bloodthirsty libertarian predators are ready to buy up the rest of America that isn’t nailed down. They made out with the banking crisis of 2008, and they bought up many of the 10 million foreclosed homes. That's how Bill O'reilly got his 78 houses. Super predators brainwashed by Milton Friedman and others with the Chicago School of Oligarchy.

Ecosystem health is an important issue, and the corporate naming of the parks is the worst idea I have ever heard. Conservative cranks want to sell off the parks but I say sell off military bases and embassies instead, and stop selling weapons to prop up a dying capitalist system.    -the end-



1-1-4

NON-PROFIT BANKING   

      With the exception of Alexander Hamilton, our founding fathers greatly feared a central banking system.

Imagine all the work involved in building a house with all the different contractors; and compare this to a banker who makes the same amount of money with a click of a mouse. They make as much money as the builder and all the contractors   PUT   TOGETHER!

Amazingly, I hear no one trying to reform this system.

           It's all pure profit for the Banksters, since they don’t need tools or trucks to move and install their product, like roofers, electricians and landscapers. They don't even need stagecoaches anymore like they did when banking was dangerous. It’s the elephant in the room that everyone is intensely trained to avoid. Well; we rationalize, we signed a contract and nothing could get done without the money involved in a loan, right?  It’s part of our gritty reality, that banks can make these outrageous, engorged fully ripened profits, and too bad for families and homeowners, who pay at least five times more interest than they should. Did we forget, "Authority is derived from the free consent of the people"? I'm outraged that people retreat with their tails between their legs against these bankster crooks, which make the Mafia look like bumbling amateurs.

           The tea party protestors don’t seem to notice this robbery out in broad daylight, and Faux news doesn’t see it either because they are too busy inspiring brave individuals who are urinating on Islamic prayer rugs and telling everyone else they are going to Hell.

          Was it President Andrew Jackson that said bankers were nothing but a den of vipers, or was that Jesus? In the 1830’s Andrew Jackson managed to eliminate the National Debt while calling the entire banking system, ‘A pit of vipers’. Or was it Jesus that called the bankers, "a Den of Vipers", I can't recall. Andrew Jackson was determined to get these parasitical leeches off the life blood of the country. With the exception of Alexander Hamilton, the founding fathers greatly feared a central banking system that would feed upon the healthy commerce of an emerging nation.

 I have an idea for a new kind of banking company that would charge a true 10 percent, and it would break even. This new bank would loan you 100,000 dollars, and you pay back 110,000. It's as simple as that, and the question is, how much would the paperwork cost with nonprofit banking?  Every loan Banking executives would make less money in this system, because it would be a slimmed down operation that would handle this loan. HERE’S YOUR NEW SQAURE DEAL!

 And happy people with refinanced mortgages, interest deleted from college loans or car loans for cars over ten years old. Someone has been paying off that car loan. Along with payments for everything else from laptops to refrigerators, would be reduced 10 to 60 percent. A stimulus program the government doesn’t have to pay for. Non-profit banking would reconfigure all the loans to 10% of the remaining balance, and bill accordingly. It's not that people can't afford the items they get on credit, it's the interest paid that weighs down consumers

                The basis of the common 30 year Home loan is the institutionalized price gouging, front loading ten years of interest right at the start so capital doesn’t get paid down for a long time. With this non-profit 10% system I am suggesting, it becomes a 20 year loan. There has been a smash and grab robbery of the middle class by the banking class system and its why people won’t feel guilty about taxing wealth. A hundred thousand dollar loan to most people ends up as 200,000 dollars of total payments when you add in the accumulated interest and ten extra years of payments.

              The horror of this anachronistic system to me is the fact that the interest is almost all front loaded, so people refinancing with lower rates end up paying for the principal twice.

               This is really a crime and we have allowed it. Legalized theft, I don't see what else you can call it.  They penalize us like law enforcement with these late fees, LIKE WE ARE SPEEDING OR RUNNING A RED LIGHT. They have these supernatural rights beyond any individual and they get bailed out, to boot. This is the corrupt white collar class robbing you in broad daylight and Glenn Beck wants to talk about restoring honor to America.

             One day a child is born and a father puts a couple of hundred dollars into a savings account for the child and years later, when he goes to move the money to a CD, he finds the account empty due to “inactivity fees.” The population has been screwed in many ways like this. 50 billion dollars in overdrawn charges in 2013. If I was in Congress I would propose a ten dollar limit to all fees, everywhere. Banking is rich in corruption and are the true drag on the economy but the billionaires have managed to brainwash people thinking that the poor hold us poor.

So clear, so plain, and these reasonably priced loans I suggest, could be such a stimulus package for 50 million struggling American home owners---why is no one discussing this? Nonprofit loans could be very popular. In my case, I could pay off my house loan and save 75,000 dollars in interest payments if I could get a loan like this. Many millions can feel closer to owning their home.     

Very importantly, the evil Bankers use these gouged profits to buy up and accumulate land and buildings and assets as tax write offs, while investing in companies that pollute our waterways and contaminate the groundwater.   Mother Nature loses with every turn of the wheel. When we’re ready to rise up it will be sweet to see.

Bankers financed the brutal western expansion of the United States, and therefore sponsored the silent slaughter of most of North Americas precious fauna. Beavers and mink turned into fur. Wolves extirpated in state after state to raise sheep. Rivers dammed and streams gutted and lakes polluted, as America was recklessly bulldozing nature. Money doesn't grow on trees, it is trees. The cheap homes of the 50's and 60's that the Greatest Generation sold for 10 times as much during real estate booms, led to the demise of southern forests.

Americas Corporate legacy will not age well in the history books. AS toxic sites are cleaned up, I see activists archiving the corporate activity that led to cases of toxic pollution. Time to stop polluting and let's break down all these toxic wastes. Chemicals combining underground even create a new substance. Dioxin is frequently created by 2 bad chemicals mixed together. This toxic brew needs to be cleaned up, not encouraged.

            What’s the reality here? You are trained to not be aware of rapacious, gangrenous, oozing greed as it haunts your life with payments that are far higher than necessary. It seems wrong, but don't think about it! You are raised with the double brush brainwashing of worshiping authority and shaped by the greatest generations' mantra, "you can't stop progress". Seniors look in dismay at their CD, and see a .083% interest, and remember the time in their youth when they got 5% with their savings accounts. Even to them, it is apparent the banksters have found many schemes for accumulating their fortunes but they are resigned to make a token objection now and then.  Today we have arbitrary late charges that are really not earned, but more like civil fines, than business between two adults. 

 To hear Andrew Jackson put it, “If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution by the morning.” Shame on all you people, worried about the ‘ground zero mosque’, and gay marriage.

           You were right Jesus, bankers are evil, and thanks Andrew Jackson, for the worthy effort you made during your presidency, eliminating the federal debt owed to bankers. I know he is despised for being a genocidal maniac but we are talking about corrupt banking here,

Here is how non profit banking would work. A Non-profit banking company, loans your hard working family 100 thousand dollars with 10 percent interest. A real ten percent, a non-usurious 10 %, an authentic, stripped down, no bullshit loan. 100,000 is lent and 110,000 is paid back. How much paperwork is needed in this computer streamlined world? For Gods sake, give these lending institutions some competition.

          Non-profit banking is not socialism. It's common sense.  





1-1-5    

A NEW SQUARE DEAL

 

      We of the American Progressive Party seek government accountability; an end to wars of aggression, a vibrant economy including living wage jobs, sustainable environments, social justice and constitutional rights for all.” The American Progressive Party from Facebook

    Progressive Platform of 1912(100+ years ago)

The Platform aspires the best for people.

"The conscience of the people, in a time of grave national problems, has called into being a new party(the Bull Moose Party), born of the nations sense of justice. We of the Progressive party here dedicate ourselves to the fulfillment of the duty laid upon us by our fathers to maintain the government of the people, by the people and for the people whose foundations they laid."

"We hold with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln that the people are the masters of their Constitution, to fulfill its purposes and to safeguard it from those who, by perversion of its intent, would convert it into an instrument of injustice. In accordance with the needs of each generation the people must use their sovereign powers to establish and maintain equal opportunity and industrial justice, to secure which this Government was founded and without which no republic can endure."

"This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest.”

REMEMBER, THIS WAS WRITTEN IN Nineteen 12.

THE OLD PARTIES

"Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.

From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

We resolve to destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.

Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth."

A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE  

This declaration is our covenant with the people, and we hereby bind the party and its candidates in State and Nation to the pledges made herein.”

********************************************

       Amazing how relevant the Progressive Party at that time seems to us here in 2021. The Green Party is like a fish flopping on the dock. Trying to stay alive despite having the progressive message that a majority of Americans agree with. The last gasp of the Progressive Party was when Henry Wallace ran for President in 1948. Independents are a vast majority but have nowhere to call home. I’ve known very few Republican or Democrat loyalists, most people I’ve met don’t belong to a party.

        You see, if there are only two parties, then one of these two will always have the power. So, our politics has become this battle between these two Machiavellian milquetoast malcontents. Don’t let them fool you. To the Democrats, the poor are their charges, their responsibility to manage. They don’t really want to work at solving the poverty crisis. The Republicans are the country club elite and their lackeys carry water for the world oligarchs.

ROUSSEAU  “since no man has any natural authority over his fellows,  and since force alone bestows no right, all legitimate authority among men must be based on covenants.”

                         

                                                                                                                                     

 “Come York or come Hampshire, come traitors or knaves,

                         If ye rule o’er our land ye shall rule o’er our graves

                      Our vow is recorded, our banner unfurled

                   IN THE NAME OF VERMONT WE DEFY ALL THE WORLD”  

                             

                               The Green Mountain Men of Vermont

                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                              

          The New Square Deal takes the battle royale of class warfare to the town square. A new square deal. Is it the New Deal or Teddy Roosevelts Square Deal? It’s a combination of both of these successful socialist initiatives.

FROM WIKIPEDIA   "The Square Deal was President Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program, which reflected his three major goals: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. These three demands are often referred to as the "three Cs" of Roosevelt's Square Deal."

 Listen, the Green Party is pretty cool and I have been registered green in my county since 1994. My small business is called The Garden Green and I promote green gardening and nature friendly landscaping processes while focusing on pollinators.

The Green New Deal will hit people wrong, right at the start. People hear the word green and they immediately go to socialism or communism. The dim bulbs of America are totally obsessed with communists and so to remove that taint I suggest we use a bit of the New Deal and The Square Deal. The New Square Deal. To once and for all create a covenant for all Americans for all time to protect them instead of allowing a permanent underclass to develop.

                                                                                                                                              

           Green Ethics and Polytheist Spirituality; A potent brew or strange bedfellows? Polytheist is my code word for pagan because pagan is such another strong word in our culture. The brainwashing is so complete that the word pagan brings up evil or negative impressions with probably 85% of the population. Pagans are known for their freewheeling antics in their American pursuit of happiness is how I see it. Greens however, are often antagonistic to spiritual beliefs, generally because Christianity is so patently objectionable to logical people, but they don't realize there are alternatives. 

     They find Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah and the book of Revelation as preposterous and burdensome to the American psyche. Islam is so thousand years ago that it is given virtually no credence or releva when Islam nce although it once spurred the Middle East to great learning of the sciences, codes of cleanliness and works of expressive art in the hybrid vigor of melding with Pagan cultures. The Fundamentalists ruined it.

       The nine noble virtues listed above are far more relevant to a pagans life than any ‘thou shalt have no other gods before me. Vikings or the Norsemen have a belief in the old gods still and in modern times are known as Asatru or Asatruar. I wonder what has ever happened between a meeting of  a follower of the Norse and a tree hugging environmentalist.  Do members of the Green Party object to the nine virtues?  For that matter what do greens think of Buddhisms eightfold path? All preferred to the dumbed down version of morality, the Bible.

       Asatru finds a way to help people deal with everyday reality and the eightfold path lights the way for many in the world. So to the greens I’m asking you to rethink the role of religion and spirituality and consider the more reasonable outlook of the various religions of the many conquered people and cultures around the world that have fallen to the cross and scimitar. With civil and human rights gaining ground around the world, people are getting back up and brushing themselves off.

      No one blithely gives god credit for all these variables in life, and I want greens to know that many of us don’t try to describe the nature of the universe or the miracle of life and all the answers as christians do.

     Preachers pastors and priests all telling us what god has told them. Imagine, the TV evangelists are sending blessings and miracles over the airwaves. “And god, ah knows you be busy, but Doris in Kansas City has just sent a generous donation for our building fund and want’s you to cure the paralysis………in her brain from listening to me.” Is this any way to run a country? I object so very strongly to this gleenbeck initiative to inject god into our country. Freedom of religion means you live your eightfold path or follow the nine virtues, not the 10 commandments. We all add strands of diversity to the tight weave of our freedoms here in the States and wherever liberty is treasured and protected.

     Some of us have other gods such as Perkunas, Perun Boreas or Zues, or in my case all of the above along with 19 others. I’m a polytheist but I have to hide this fact because of the book burning, book banning, pitchfork carrying purveyors of the “word”.  

      My main point is that all of us free minded people need to keep the United States on track with a form of patriotism not often heard. How would Thomas Jefferson be spending his days in 2021? He would be loving the diversity, exploring the technology and would be engaged in the lively blogs of the day and having the time of his life. Maybe even using Tik Tok to  He would have contempt for the continual attempt to stuff everyone into this christian box of conformity and would probably have a show to directly oppose Fox News.

        Contrary to the killing done in Jesus and Allahs name, polytheists are not actively engaged in conversion. They give you freedom of religion and there is no preaching about god and punishment in hell. That sounds like a familiar phrase, freedom of religion….where have I heard that before? Oh yeh, the Constitution of the United States. So if you are a green atheist, I can understand your antagonism to religion. Churches putting giant billboard messages for you to read on your way to work, in god we trust on the money and on and on is a dealbreaker for democracy.

     Atheist greens say two hands planting a tree is far more practical, and reality based and does more than any 10 hands clasped in prayer. Our diversity is the high thread count in the quality of our constitutional fabric of freedom. Religion is pollution in the eyes of many and this is what the Progressive Pagan Patriots intend to do. Fight for our freedom, a simple civil rights for pagans. Not in Vietnam or Afghanistan, but like the civil rights activists right here in our own country. A moral high ground hypocrisy and a continued disconnect with nature is all that exists within the power structure now.

     Pagans and polytheists have ceremonies that connect them with nature and atheist find it all ridiculous. I find the Lord and Lady ceremony and the twirling athame in the dark as irrelevant to my life,  but have some  nature respecting ceremonies instead. There is no “Gaia cult” that is going to put Mother Nature in ascendance over the bible god, no takeovers of constitutional governments.      Once conservatives are done with the Dr. Suess controversy, they will very likely seek other targets.  Media personalities such as radio star “Mancow” are preaching that there is a dangerous “green cult” of people who are going to reduce the worlds population by 90%. There are greens and there are Gaia lovers but it seems thus far,  never the twain shall meet, and to tie environmentalists is absurd  to the handful of people that advocate a lessening of the world population.

     We can be like the Green Mountain Men and fight for what we want to preserve. They took up arms to keep their independence just before the Revolutionary War. New Hampshire and New York bought fought to take over Vermont. They remained free and some 10 years later they became a rowdy contingent in George Washingtons army.

      Many greens have no connection to the divine and that’s fine with them, who cares and why waste your time they ask? The simple fact is that the greatest generation and their youthful lackeys and apologists have done 7 generations of resource extraction in one and that’s bad in itself,  but to say that a deity told them the earth was theirs to plunder,  is simply stunningly retarded. No offense of course. Then they see pagans wear antlers or flowers A picture containing text, person, outdoor

Description automatically generatedand dance till dawn and they shake their head and go their lonely atheist road.

      Religion will tear this country apart so I am calling everyone to work for our common goal. Hail the Constitution. Praise the bill of rights. In Libertas we trust. Freedom of religion needs to be clearly defined and will be part of a New Square Deal. 
Theodore Roosevelt speech after he got shot in 1912

     “Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks with such foul slander and abuse any opponent of any other party; and now I wish to say seriously to all the daily newspapers, to the Republicans, the Democrat, and Socialist parties, that they cannot, month in month out and year in and year out, make the kind of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that brutal, violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially when the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; they cannot expect that such natures will be unaffected by it.”

        “Now, friends, I am not speaking for myself at all, I give you my word, I do not care a rap about being shot; not a rap.

     I have had a good many experiences in my time and this is one of them. What I care for is my country. I wish I were able to impress upon my people -- our people, the duty to feel strongly but to speak the truth of their opponents. I say now, I have never said one word against any opponent that I cannot defend. I have said nothing that I could not substantiate and nothing that I ought not to have said -- nothing that I -- nothing that, looking back at, I would not say again.

       I regard this incident as compared with the great issues at stake in this campaign, and I ask it not for my sake, not the least in the world, but for the sake of common country, that they make up their minds to speak only the truth, and not use that kind of slander and mendacity which if taken seriously must incite weak and violent natures to crimes of violence. Don't you make any mistake. Don't you pity me. I am all right. I am all right and you cannot escape listening to the speech either.

     And now, friends, this incident that has just occurred - this effort to assassinate me- emphasizes to a peculiar degree the need of the Progressive movement. Friends, every good citizen ought to do everything in his or her power to prevent the coming of the day when we shall see in this country two recognized creeds fighting one another, when we shall see the creed of the "Havenots" arraigned against the creed of the "Haves." When that day comes then such incidents as this to-night will be commonplace in our history. When you make poor men - when you permit the conditions to grow such that the poor man as such will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they improperly have won, when that day comes, the most awful passions will be let loose and it will be an ill day for our country.

 “ Theodore Roosevelt

Remainder of Progressive Party platform 1912

THE RULE OF THE PEOPLE

The National Progressive party, committed to the principles of government by a self-controlled democracy expressing its will through representatives of the people, pledges itself to secure such alterations in the fundamental law of the several States and of the United States as shall insure the representative character of the government.

NATION AND STATE

Up to the limit of the Constitution, and later by amendment of the Constitution, it found necessary, we advocate bringing under effective national jurisdiction those problems which have expanded beyond reach of the individual States.

It is as grotesque as it is intolerable that the several States should by unequal laws in matter of common concern become competing commercial agencies, barter the lives of their children, the health of their women and the safety and well being of their working people for the benefit of their financial interests.

EQUAL SUFFRAGE

The Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a true democracy which denies political rights on account of sex, pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike.

 PASSED IN 1920 America emerges from third world conditions!

CURRENCY

We believe there exists imperative need for prompt legislation for the improvement of our National currency system. We believe the present method of issuing notes through private agencies is harmful and unscientific.

END THE FED

The issue of currency is fundamentally a Government function and the system should have as basic principles soundness and elasticity. The control should be lodged with the Government and should be protected from domination or manipulation by Wall Street or any special interests.

CONSERVATION

The natural resources of the Nation must be promptly developed and generously used to supply the peoples needs, but we cannot safely allow them to be wasted, exploited, monopolized or controlled against the general good. We heartily favor the policy of conservation, and we pledge our party to protect the National forests without hindering their legitimate use for the benefit of all the people.

Agricultural lands in the National forests are, and should remain, open to the genuine settler. Conservation will not retard legitimate development. The honest settler must receive his patent promptly, without hindrance, rules or delays.

We believe that the remaining forests, coal and oil lands, water powers and other natural resources still in State or National control (except agricultural lands) are more likely to be wisely conserved and utilized for the general welfare if held in the public hands.

In order that consumers and producers, managers and workmen, now and hereafter, need not pay toll to private monopolies of power and raw material, we demand that such resources shall be retained by the State or Nation, and opened to immediate use under laws which will encourage development and make to the people a moderate return for benefits conferred.

In particular we pledge our party to require reasonable compensation to the public for water power rights hereafter granted by the public.

We pledge legislation to lease the public grazing lands under equitable provisions now pending which will increase the production of food for the people and thoroughly safeguard the rights of the actual homemaker. Natural resources, whose conservation is necessary for the National welfare, should be owned or controlled by the Nation.

GOOD ROADS

We recognize the vital importance of good roads and we pledge our party to foster their extension in every proper way, and we favor the early construction of National highways. We also favor the extension of the rural free delivery service.

WATERWAYS

The rivers of the United States are the natural arteries of this continent. We demand that they shall be opened to traffic as indispensable parts of a great Nation-wide system of transportation, in which the Panama Canal will be the central link, thus enabling the whole interior of the United States to share with the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards in the benefit derived from the canal.

GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION OVER INVESTMENTS

The people of the United States are swindled out of many millions of dollars every year, through worthless investments. The plain people, the wage earner and the men and women with small savings, have no way of knowing the merit of concerns sending out highly colored prospectuses offering stock for sale, prospectuses that make big returns seem certain and fortunes easily within grasp.

We hold it to be the duty of the Government to protect its people from this kind of piracy. We, therefore, demand wise, carefully thought out legislation that will give us such Governmental supervision over this matter as will furnish to the people of the United States this much-needed protection, and we pledge ourselves thereto.

CONCLUSION

On these principles and on the recognized desirability of uniting the Progressive forces of the Nation into an organization which shall unequivocally represent the Progressive spirit and policy we appeal for the support of all American citizens, without regard to previous political affiliations.

NOT THE GREEN DEAL BUT A NEW SQUARE DEAL

  1-1-6    MARXISM IN AMERICA

Do we follow the 9th commandment ……or the 9th amendment of the Bill of rights constitution thingy? In the case of tea party ‘patriots’, the answer is neither. In the absence of law, the 9th amendment says we must use precedence and the spirit of our constitution to make decisions. The Tea Potty has warped the meaning of this and this will be one of our constitutional wrestling matches this year. The 9th commandment of the bible talks about bearing false witness and needless to say glennbeck will spend an eternity in hell just for what he has said demonizing progressives. The deception and half truths from todays neo-cons is the epitome of bearing false witness.
            “We of the American Progressive Party seek government accountability; an end to wars of aggression, a vibrant economy including living wage jobs, sustainable environments, social justice and constitutional rights for all.” The American Progressive Party from Facebook. 

            We anticipate the logjam of the Liberal-Conservative debate to break soon and
new ideas, independent ideas, will burst onto the media. A new culture has begun to rise up. It’s healthy greenery will grow a canopy over the dying, destructive, death dealing, war loving culture of Manifest Destiny.  We will evolve out of this entirely corrupt predatory capitalist system.

            The Populist-Progressive era of 1890-1915 is being revised for modern times but progressives are called liberals and I’d like to tell you why that is partly wrong. One star of the Progressive era was Teddy Roosevelt, a populist conservative, who was often at odds with big business, although there also times when he was accused of coddling business.  He was one of the few in power that was brave enough to confront the predatory monopolies head on. He was also enough of a conservationist to have started the National Parks system and the National Estuary Program. There was also Bob Lafollette, “fightin’ Bob’ and the muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair who wrote “The Jungle” exposing the disgusting conditions in meat factories.
.
            Earlier in this century the GOP ad eople like Phil Gramm and Cal Thomas, glennbeck, George Will, Billo Reilly, Anne Coulter, Half-Truth Hannity AND the great deceiver, Rush Limbaugh truly defined the phrase, “mean spirited.” They are  moral high ground, hypocritical, corporate apologists. They insist on trying to hold up the crumbling façade of manifest destiny and acting out the “white man’s burden.” Ann Coulter tells us that god gave the resources of the earth for everyone to use.

In a book called The History of Gardening, Neal Fairbairn quotes George Washington who said, "How much more delightful is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it."

            People are waking up to the fact that 30 Independents in Congress and 10 in the Senate would keep either entrenched party from holding a majority. Independents: be they Green or Libertarian or Progressive. Progressive independents can investigate corporate greed while on the other side of the spectrum, Libertarian independents can root out government waste. 
     “Surprising as it may seem to those who equate the collapse of communism with the failed ideas of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, there was actually little connection between the two. Marx would have applauded the Soviet Union going into the dustbin of history, as it exemplified all that he stood against; a corrupt oligarchy blocking the forces of production.” Jude Wanniski

      People here in Indian River County are in a panic that Barack INSANE Obama is turning us into communists right under our noses. Socialism will devour us! Yikes! What is this socialism and why do we need to tremble at the thought of it? Our President is a commie Marxist? I have read Mr. Obamas books and I didn't get that impression AT ALL. Here in America we cover our children’s ears to protect them from what a standing President has to say and call it “don’t tread on me”. This is highly insulting to the memory of the actual greatest generation of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson and their compadres.

       This article is from 2010  and do you remember when the Obama speech to schoolchildren was boycotted by angry Republican parents? It was fear mongering similar to the McCarthy Era and the Great Awakening of the 1730's and people are falling for it again. The letters to the editor page in our paper, The Press Journal, is filled with the dire warnings that our country will turn socialist, communist or Marxist and they try to muddy the waters of logic best they can. Staple tea bags to your head as a talisman to protect yourself from Barack Khrushchev Obama.

      Well, I will tell you what. I really have never read Marx, but I do understand that communism is a proven economic and environmental disaster. Let me go check out some websites to figure this out (be right back).
Well, I found a distinguished iconoclastic conservative and his quotes about Marxism. He takes an objective look at what Marx said and I quote some of his comments. His name is Jude Wanniski and he was an adviser to Ronald Reagan from 1978 to 1981, and designed the Reagan tax cuts during his first term in office.


    In 1978 Wanniski started Polyconomics, an economic forecasting firm, a business focused on providing investment advice based on political and economic analysis. He became a controversial figure in the conservative movement at the beginning of 2003 when he vocally opposed the impending US war with Iraq. Here is this intellectual conservative speaking truth about Marx, “Because we naturally equated Marx with our mortal enemies throughout the Cold War, we found it easy enough to think of him as an evil genius, who would have nothing to teach us today. In many ways, though, his original insights are more valuable because we now no longer have our vision of him colored by adversarial tensions. Indeed, when I visited Moscow in 1989 at the invitation of the Gorbachev government, I told my hosts,
with only a slight smile, that 'Marx would have been ashamed of what you have done here in his name.'"

     Wanniski continues, “What would Marx observe unfolding in China, which is, of course, still technically a communist state? First, it would please him enormously that China is now the fastest growing economy in the world. Just as he greatly admired the United States of the 19th century, with a government subservient to a fluid society and its own brand of untrammeled, klondike capitalism, he would see China at a similar stage of development. The western intellectual aristocracy remains befuddled, transfixed by China's explosive breakout. What is going on under their noses is a rampant, democratic capitalism developing from the bottom up, with Beijing's Communist Party standing aside to keep from being trampled by the unleashed energies of 1.2 billion ordinary people. Marx would cheerfully observe that there is no Big Business in China! The remnants of the Chinese business class escaped to Taiwan years ago, just at the point it was congealing into a new oligarchy. These are young Chinese who are starting fresh, advised to get rich by an 89-year-old admirer of Marx and the historic forces of production.”

     Jude Wanniski continues,“The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, the principal Establishment voices in America, are horrified by all this. China is setting a bad example, its ordinary citizens actually getting rich by paying no attention whatever to the IMF, World Bank, the U.S. Treasury, or the British colonial interests in Hong Kong. When Deng Xiaoping looks for outside advice, he draws upon the Chinese diaspora in Singapore and Hong Kong, now patching things up with the Taiwanese. “ These have been quotes from Jude Winniski.

     On October 27, 2004, he publicly denounced George W. Bush, saying that "Mr. Bush has become an imperialist; one whose decisions as commander-in-chief have made the world a more dangerous place".


    What this noted conservative is saying is that Chinas economy is thriving because there is not much of a white collar parasitical class yet. What I’m telling you about will also work here  if American innovation can be unleashed with freedom for small business. All of the advantages corporations have written into law the last 100 years were to get around the trust busting initiatives of Teddy Roosevelt and  this law debilitated nightmare created by our congress and senate and the coral colony of lobbyists needs to be investigated.

    There will be no communism in America. There are ways to over throw the economic overlords and it starts with the banking system. It’s Predatory Capitalism and the Institutionalized Greed that needs to die, not a war fighting the phony threat of creeping socialism. An innovative blue collar oriented or small business world can ignore the needs of big business that always seems to need taxpayer bailouts and require toxic clean ups: and they roam the globe for the most servile labor force. Corporations thought nothing of putting their pipes directly into bodies of water create a stoxic amount of pollution in the 20th century.  


    To me the massive wealth accumulated by the banks is also the absolute pinnacle of predatory big business, a transfer of wealth from the middle class these last 30 years. Thomas Jefferson said, “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have a government by the majority who participate.“ What was developing in 2009-10 was a growing mob mentality similar to the McCarthy Era that was fueled by the neo-conservative hairballs. The ones participating in this faux hysteria carry psychological pitchforks to suppress the independent majority with their sputtering outrage at “Health scare”, the Twin Towers mosque and beheadings by Mexican drug gangs and other bullshit issues that keep progressives from getting down to business to help small business gain their first advantages in 100 years.  


     One reason I had to be without healthcare by the end of 2009 is because of the inherent greed that most health practitioners will readily acknowledge is rampant through the entire system. Our insurance costs went over a thousand dollars and I opted out because we couldn't afford it. Ask the family whose life savings has been absorbed by intrusive fancy pants, end of life procedures, as elderly parents last days were filled with indignities to keep them alive a few days or weeks longer, adding tens of thousands to an already bloated hospital bill. We have the best health care in the world? Yes, if you are a hypochondriac getting 5 MRI’s a year for every itch you have. As George Bush fiddled to Cheneys fires, this health care inflation became the major cause of personal bankruptcies .

    You have to weigh in and make your influence felt, otherwise, you are accepting the tyranny that will fill the vacuum when good people do nothing. Never mind Freddy Kruger and the Halloween movies, the proven failure of communism is trotted out to put fear in the gelatinous lump called the American electorate, the goober nation. Barack Maobama is turning America into Communists right under our noses!

           I have a dream where America will not be a place where my five little children are to be a herd of toilers to pay off the pension funds of those who worked in the weapons or chemical industry. Then there's the AIG’s and other banks who produce no actual products other than to make more money for those who already have enough, and are too big to fail. But not too big to take the handouts in the form of taxes from my five little children and 50 million other children who will soon become taxpayers.

     We have two Americas, one one where Earle, Eugene and Carlton(made up names,) drink from the health care fountain gushing unlimited MRI’s and 300 dollar a month medications for 15 dollars, and the non-insured fountain dribbling not enough care for people like me who can no longer afford to subsidize those who have ‘worked hard all their life’. Trust me I’ve worked hard all of my life, turning my passion into income but working with the earth as a gardener does not pay like those careers in the extractive, investing and polluting industries.


     This is why the Health Care bill works for most of us. We are all in this together now, preventative care costs rise now for a lowering of prices later. It’s called long term planning and I wouldn’t expect those with pensions and good medical coverage to be supportive.

1-1-7   SOCIALISM IS FOR LOSERS
Here is an inside out look at the question I found posted on a forum.
How many people understand socialism and understand it's destruction of America THE WRITER ASKED? Tongue in cheek, this was my response. “It hasn't destroyed us yet. I invested in GM in the 50's but taxpayers cleaned up the toxic waste from production facilities. Then I got a job  at Dow Chemical where I made alot of money from the government designing methods to deploy napalm in Vietnam. Then I invested in a high profit company that obtained numerous government contracts and when they got caught pouring iridium down a well, we got fined peanuts. As this nuclear waste found its way into the water supply we all laughed and clipped fat cigars at the country club.
     But then I realized I didn't have quite enough money so I got together with an old friend in the late 70’S, and we took great delight in bulldozing forests to make suburbs. When the sissy state I lived in started cleaning up the rivers, and made my friends update their smokestacks with those damn clean air laws, I moved to Florida where I got involved heavily in sugar production making gargantuan profits in the 80's as Americas seriously began to overeat and sugar was a tremendous growth industry. We emptied the Lake Okeechobee watershed and farmed the rich mud. By farming I mean applying lots of chemicals. Taxpayers are now paying for a 2 Billion dollar cleanup of the Everglades and I still have 5 homes. Losers.
     Now me and my fourth wife go out to Chez Gougeeng every night in our Rolls Royce and there's a rags to riches story for you. My newest wife grew up in Appalachia with coal dust in her fingernails and asbestos in her hair but joined the army. She got lucky because for 18 of her 20 years of service, all she did was sell boots and shoes at the commissary and now she has a lifetime pension and free medical care. She doesn't need it really because we are so rich, but it's nice to know it's there just in case Obama takes from us rich people who have worked hard all our lives."


1-1-8  CONVERSATIONS                       WITH      CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATIONISTS

               Will conservatives and conservationists continue to battle about our future? Neo-Conservatives decry the “so-called damaged environments, and the oppressive Endangered Species Act.” On the other hand, Conservationists go too far with excessive regulation. Poor lawn mowing dudes scraping by, can be fined $5,000 for spraying some weed killer by USDA goons. For instance I can’t prune mangroves the way I think that is best, the way I have done for 5 years that has resulted in the nicest mangroves on Indian River Boulevard, so I no longer do (wink wink).

     Is there a middle ground where peace can be negotiated? America’s future strength will be in embracing our diversity of viewpoints and endorsing a traditional American Dream. A vision that respects all opinions, not just the ones we like. Opinions are not wrong, they are opinions. Tolerance and freedom would seem to go hand in hand so please reject the Intolerant Minority and embrace our true conservative roots.  

     The squishy soft urban liberal needs to understand the goals of the self-sufficient rural person and both need to respect each other.  “Ewww, you kill it…then eat it…Yuck!” Too many people just squirm when it comes to eating wild meat but find nothing unsavory about how pigs are raised for those babyback ribs they get at TGIFridays. 

Traditionally in this country, 25% of the population hunted for their meat. The Native Americans and their respectful pursuit of game for thousands of years and then the Yankee farmer and other European settlers. Personally, I squirm when I am eating a life that was tamed and tortured such as chickens, this bothers me a hell of a lot more. To understand our meat factories and continue to eat the same amount of meat is to endorse animal cruelty. Jeremy Rifkin suggested in the 70’s that everyone should cut their meat consumption in half. If that simple rule were followed the Amazon would not have been clear cut as it has been..

                 I would happily eat gator meat or venison if it was sustainably harvested by an unleashed small business effort. There is a new attitude that would have us creating self-sustaining resources with a Capitalist economic system of sustainability. This viewpoint is being articulated, and this will eventually raise awareness.                                People hunting for their own food should not be treated the same as someone who kills an unsustainable amount of food, (think tuna)(think rain forests cut down for hamburger), that weakens ecosystems for those who could hunt or would like to purchase wild meat. Gluttonous windfalls of these billion dollar “food” companies is the only concern of predatory Protestant capitalists, not ‘feeding the people’ as they claim.

 

     Those exploiting resources need to know Americas future is tied to its land and water resources. Karl Rove and the phony conservatives are eager for an era of unregulated clear cutting of trees, pipes of toxic effluent leading directly into bodies of water and untrammeled exploration of oil and natural gas fields. A sick evil greed we are responsible for allowing. Don’t we arrest murderers and bank robbers? There were more bank overdraft fees last year than there was money robbed from banks.

        Maybe conservative conservationist sounds like a contradiction in terms but I have a role model for the conservative conservationist. His name was Aldo Leopold. In his book, Sand County Almanac, author Leopold writes of his conversion from an exploiter into a respecter and steward of our wild lands. He relates this conversation concerning hunting when he was young in the early 1900’s. “In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy... How to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing... When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down and the pup was dragging a leg into the impassable slide rocks.”

     “We reached the wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then and have known ever since that there was something new to me in those eyes; something known only to her and the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger itch; I thought that fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would be a hunter’s paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”

     “Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of a newly wolf less mountain, and seen the south facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every bush and seedling browsed, first to anaenemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God pruning shears and forbid him all other exercise. I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of

it’s deer.”

       A young hunter with trigger itch eventually becomes the most outspoken advocate of the real value of land up till that time. Leopold was somewhat famous from 1935 to 1955 and he was a thinking mans rustic. He inspired many in their pursuit of conservation ethics. Restoration of some of the prairies and preservation of good forests that remain has to be very important to all future prosperity. There seems to be scare tactics in the media to keep people out of the forests and to marginalize nature as something that is no longer important. Forests and watersheds abused by corporations rightfully belong to all people to enjoy as recreation or to use for hunting sustainable populations of animals. 

     There is an excess of 20 million deer in the United States and the alligator population is not endangered and would yield quite a few tons of meat. I propose a giant hunting park in the everglades where you can take home what you find, and a place where nuisance alligators can be taken. As much as I like bears there are rapidly growing populations in many. More for the survivalists, bear fat is useful for many things.

                                                                                                                

           I got a feeling though that there’s a propaganda effort going on to scare people about the wild lands. Deer ticks, cougars, grizzlies, West Nile Virus and many other scary aspects to the outdoors. I propose that conservatives and libertarians abandon their venom spewing extremes and take a stand on the real extreme, and embrace another mysterious conspiracy. Why is the U.S. government and our scientific resources trying to scare people from the national parks? Our wild lands keep us free. It’s because Republicans hope that you all stop going to the National Forests so this way they can buy it and strip them clean

 

                Mining companies and cattle barons have waited so long to completely own the land, because they used the hell out of it as if they did own it. Now they want the rest of it Never mind that people will be turned away at parks this summer and these National Parks are mostly full of visitors and the government isn’t putting the money where it should as we spend way too much on war, and precious little on recreation.  But to facilitate the enjoyment by quite a few Americans of our National Park System,  unfortunately, we can only talk about adding millions in federal budgets. War has become more important than recreation, subverting our “pursuit of happiness.                                                                        

We are becoming too modern. Too sophisticated. Too smart. Pilotless drones killing people. War is not really normal human behavior anymore, wouldn‘t you say?  Time to evolve and stop sending the healthiest off to die overseas. Sphere’s of influence need to be in place. Europe, India, China, Australia and others need to step up to the plate with organized relief efforts in their sphere of influence, and an authentic effort to end war.

 

 

     It was conservatives that finished the American Revolution.  The Liberals of that era wanted freedom, but with a managed liberty facilitated by royalty, and they were ready to make our first president a king; called King George (Washington). It was the original G.W. that said, ”A government is like fire. A handy servant but a dangerous master“. The Libertarian Patriots would have no part of that. Conservatives said, gather in Philadelphia, and let’s get down to some business and create a libertarian type of freedom for the individual and to shield every American from religious zealots and their invisible friend that allegedly wrote the Bible.

 Is it any wonder that in polls, preachers are rated very low along with car salesman for trustworthiness as they were in 1776 on a par with the snake oil salesman.

I am neither liberal nor conservative and I made up the phrase “Independent Majority” to describe many of us. Conservatives have corrupted the meaning of the word, conservative, and Liberal was not derived from the word liberty. In the Revolutionary Era liberals had a reputation for siding with totalitarians and royalty.

 

       In the 60’s liberals became associated with liberty and civil rights, a traditionally conservative viewpoint and an offshoot of the Progressive Era who were represented by conservative conservationist Theodore Roosevelt (Republicans take note). Liberals were disturbed by the mad devouring industrial machine and the need for full civil rights for all people. Liberals also stewarded laws to reduce and slow down air and water pollution by the greedy corporations and thusly, the Liberals modernized themselves. The land and air should belong to the people, not a waste bucket for the Protestant profiteers, even Richard Nixon knew that.              

The unseen cost of our “prosperity” is the degradation of our prime raw materials---air and water. What about all these 50 year olds dying of various cancers? Maybe they frolicked on lawns poisoned by DDT and WW2 nerve agents. Conservatives can finish this modern age of reform with another Conservative Counter revolution, but the religious wackoes and apologists of the grandiose rich have stolen conservatism.

                Growing crops to keep our trade deficit down has degraded so much land that soil scientists say we have lost 50% of the topsoil we once had. That unseen cost again. Profits of the last 65 years have come at the cost of pesticides in the people and water and half the good topsoil removed. The continuing soil erosion is a result of our cheap food policy. These large acreage farms support tractor and fuel suppliers. They keep the commercial silos in business they whine. They fill that big empty hole where there should be a community with that peculiar form of predatory capitalism that is all about profit and not compassion. Home and farm foreclosures should never happen, the bank will get their thirty years of payments, but there are going to be bumps in the road for everyone.                                                                              

    The large corporate farms cried that their subsidies were an important part of the local economy and the government was not only hurting them but also the community. Wah wah, big tears, they are about commerce not communities. What could replace them?  Why do BIG corporations have a problem with small farms, close communities and independence?

        A conservative should be a steward of the land. Restoring prairie ecosystems and protesting forest destruction since this is how the self-sufficient native Americans and pioneer yeoman used to do it and it should be available today as an option. There should always be enough fish for people to catch and it would be conservative to be an advocate to retain Americas wild lands.                                                    

 Planting trees as windbreaks so the soil does not blow into rivers and streams and suffocating fish, is one of the many ways to energize small business and so would restoring the health of trout streams and knocking down dams so Salmon can breed again. Schoolchildren get it. But the so called “greatest generation” never will. Apologists for corporate totalitarianism, the post WW2 generation were the most easily brainwashed group of people ever. Could you convince this younger generation that we need nuclear energy? There is only one problem besides annihilation in a meltdown when it comes to a nuclear site.  We need to store radioactive materials for 10,000 years, not to mention the 50 billion needed for each plant to be decommissioned.                                                                                      

Nuclear power fuel costs were lower for the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s but now  400 generations will need to inspect, reject, object and hire 10,000 years worth of people to keep an eye on the radioactive poison. The unseen cost; as we hope for no leakage problems for thousands of years. But money is so important, the nuclear industry is trying to subtly brainwash people to think that it’s okay. Our friend the atom. Yes the kids get it. They get what the creator was trying to do. Maintain a balance of life. When you kill frogs you get flies. Let’s fill in more wetlands! Birds have confronted so many poisons in the last 60 years their populations have been halved with the most beautiful and interesting birds suffering the most.  Knock down more trees or plow the prairies to cultivate it to create a monoculture of 5,000 acres of wheat.                  

What are big farmers giving to America? Taxes? Hopefully. At what cost? The tilled acreage probably contained 50 animal species and 400 plant species. The prairie ecosystem was a deeply rooted mix of low growing plants; numerous grasses and small shrubs and a wide variety of perennials. The prairies were a very unique set of ecosystems that dominated the central United States and now only 3% remains while greed mongers have profited from the destruction of the other 97% that have been cultivated.

 

      It takes 10 pounds of corn feed to make one pound of beef. (Cow muscle and fat.)   Instead of one beef patty you could have 10 corn muffins. Beef needs steroids and antibiotics. Veal is raised in cruel conditions. The world has decided that eating animals is important and Beef in general is grown as if they were tomatoes or peppers, where has respect for all life gone to? Oh yeh, Manifest Destiny and the belief that God wants us to use up Nature for profits. Trust me, you can be a conservative and be a vegetarian. Beef doesn’t have to be for dinner as the cattle growers continue to destroy ecosystems.

           Richard Hofstadter is my favorite author. He’s able to sum up the Midwestern culture in one long complex sentence, He said, "If a rural culture means an emotional and craftsman-like dedication to the soil, a traditional and pre-capitalist outlook, a tradition directed instead rather than career directed type of character, and a village community devoted to ancestral ways  then the prairies and plains never had one.”  Those college professors sure can construct some convoluted sentences. But do you see what he means Vern?  It became about profits. The heart and soul torn out of the community replaced with the bottom line greed of the Predatory Capitalists. Globally these corporations are doing the same thing to small farmers everywhere. The Predatory Capitalist Dream is to have everyone grow for one store and foreclose on every home they can to erode our freedom and independence. Everyone paying rent to vicious and pernicious corporations. Corporate fascism, as long as people got alot of stuff to fill their busy life they will follow any law.

 

 

     I’m trying to answer the oft asked but never quite completely answered question, can a conservative be a conservationist? Hell yes, a real conservative would be in favor of restoring the prairies more to what it was. Remnants and fragments are being saved and enhanced in many areas. Many of us are Green Social Conservatives. Sometimes we don’t know where we fit. Maybe we have abandoned too much of the past. Going back to Thomas Jefferson’s time, Hofstadter wrote this about the yeoman farmer, “Making at home almost everything he needed, buying little, using each year but a pocketful of cash, he would be independent of the marketplace as he was the favor of others.

     It is ridiculous to have these giant fields of crops that are exported for the profits of the mega farmer. People drive by these farms with their wave after wave of corn or wheat or something, then remark how marvelous a sight like this is. But to a growing number of people who read about the prairie ecosystem, they can only imagine what was lost. Just a few hundred years ago there was an ecosystem here, with bugs and bees and birds and flowers and buffaloes and a sustainable population of game animals. Taken back 200 years you would also note how large and marvelous the native prairie once was and you would support its preservation and replanting.

 

     So take your fundamentally independent or conservative or libertarian viewpoints and take a good look at what humans are doing to the creators fine work. You may as well snatch the hat off of the God and Goddess and take a crap in it because that’s how we are treating this marvelously working planet. Conservatives have become apologists for big business. The worst of them wear bow ties and are editors of college newspapers. These neo-con phonies need to go.

     Another fine writer I enjoy is Peter Drucker. He died recently at 95 and he wrote more than just about business which he was well known for. Here’s what he wrote about the Revolutionary era Patriots in his book from 1942, The Future of Industrial Man. “In the first place, while conservative, they did not restore nor intend to restore. They never did idealize the past: and they had no illusions about the present in which they lived. They knew that the social reality had changed. They would never have conceived their task as anything but the integration of the new society on the basis of the old principles: never would they have countenanced any attempt to undo what had happened.

     It is their unconditional refusal to restore which has made the founding fathers appear radical, and which has obscured the essentially conservative character in their work. Their social analysis was indeed radical, extremely radical. They never accepted the polite conventions or the wishful restorative dreams which were based on the assumption that the old society was still functioning. The founding fathers of America were conservative of the present and future.”

he observations of our founding fathers looking at todays world would be ‘too much technology’ and ‘what are you doing fighting a war on the other side of the world? They would also say, “Too bad 21st century people don’t love the earth the same way they love money”. No wonder kids rebel, they don’t want to spend their life in cubicle hell, another brick in the wall, a cog in the consuming machine. They are searching for a way to make their life meaningful and many of them are finding ways. Their lives can too easily become formulaic and they are easy prey for todays phony conservatives. Venom spewing rage at liberals who rob the system they say, turning us into a socialist nightmare.

     The 1600’s may have been one of those “golden moments” in American economic history. Like today, there were just a lot of regular people, like us, who only have a minimal impact on society. Working hard, trying to do right by society and trying to keep children happy and healthy, and not really giving a crap about giving hard earned money to organized religion!

     The agrarian world of the independent farmers and their families became a threat and by 1700 the religious leaders and the royalty saw a need to curb this independence in the American colonies. In 1639 an important document, the Fundamental Orders, had been written. It  declared that all political power was derived from the “free consent of the people”.

 

     Well, this was not to be tolerated by the ruling elite.. People took care of a lot of their needs themselves, but the left over issues were solved at the monthly town meetings and this was decentralized government at its finest. Also the neighboring natives, particularly the Iroquois and Mohawk, had systems of peaceful self government. No one back then could have imagined the gargantuan waddling monster of a government that builds like a coral colony with every new special interest with a gripe.           

The Libertarian conservative and the anarchic green fringe is trying to funnel this government power back down to state, county and local government, eventually leading to states taking care of education, state roads and other functions. In a truly civilized world there will not be a need for this intrusive government and The Greens particularly have solutions that will eventually have us taking care of ourselves. Who needs the Gross National Product when food, furniture, hardware and items for daily living, can be gotten locally?

     I last lived in New England in the 80’s.  In 1984 I moved away from Arizona because I yearned for New England again. Leaving the laid back, c’est la vie attitude of Tucson it was back to the land of material yearning; Cuisanarts, cars, curtains and children’s private school. I moved for the quaintness history and diversity of opinions and to observe recovering wild lands. Living north of the busy Hartford county area I ventured back one day to see my quaint little hometown of Wethersfield, Connecticut in southern Hartord County.                                      

In the War on the Trees the developers were winning everywhere I visited. How about some access to a park with a lot of trees? The town has 15 drug stores but no wild lands. All that was left was the meadows where I had a lot of adventures as a youth>>> or I could go to the Green. 300 years old and it wasn’t going anywhere. In just 10 years the younger trees seemed to have grown a lot and none of the old trees seem to have died. I loved the giant beech trees. 50 years of names carved into the trunk seem to have done no harm. Jogger’s biker’s, strollers & walkers and benches to accommodate the crowds.

 

     But what about peace and quiet? I drove around town to the old spots, but the only quiet place was Ye Anciente graveyard. Headstones dating back to 1680. Even the ghosts have moved on. The ancient graveyard nearby with people born in the 1600's were laid to rest could be a restful hilly retreat. Unfortunately, the noise from the Interstate Highway, Rt. 91, was constantly droning.

     In the 1600's, pioneers built their houses from trees in the forest. The “elite minority” followed their roughhewn footsteps of the first westward moving pioneers as they left Boston and Plymouth to settle in river valleys; particularly the Connecticut River and the Hudson. These pioneers eventually reached the Appalachian Mountains. With virtually no government, there was agrarian freedom, it was virtually anarchy. Agrarian Anarchy. Trade, barter and self-sufficiency greased the wheels of society. Today, can this type of freedom be replicated without the nonsense of religion that ruin that century?  Or the pinhead accountants that say it’s not possible.

     Developer delirium will always dwarf agrarian anarchy unless the good people advocate and implement changes. Future generations will puzzle over the recklessness of 20th century people allowing forests to be leveled.  A small population building homes and small towns had only a slight impact on the ecosystems. I’ve mostly lived “outside of town”.  In Hazardville Connecticut I was in a house surrounded by 200 acres of corn and a couple hundred acre shrub farm. Then a cul de sac was built. Great for property values but  the trucks speed around the corner, sand piles built up and gravel goes all over the road. Here in Florida, they dig out ancient sand ridges to built one new house after another. Probably starting three new houses every day in this county, that boom recently collapsed.

This constant rapid growth can’t be good for ecological balance. Agrarian anarchy is the antithesis of parasitical capitalism. Agrarian Anarchy asks the question, “What is better, 700 farmers, truckers, small store owners and others making 40,000 dollars a year or one “export executive” Making 10 million dollars? That one executive is somehow as valuable as an entire small community who actually produce goods? Look for the holes in this Predatory Capitalist system we have now and rid ourselves of these white collar parasites and that 10 million dollars could be divided among people who actually work?

 

1-1-9   SOCIALISM IS FOR LOSERS
How many people understand socialism and understand it's destruction of America? Tongue in cheek, this was my response. 
“It hasn't destroyed us yet. I invested in GM in the 50's but taxpayers cleaned up the toxic waste from production facilities. Then I got a job at Dow Chemical where I made alot of money from the government designing methods to deploy napalm in Vietnam. Then I invested in a high profit company that obtained numerous government contracts and when they got caught pouring iridium down a well, we got fined peanuts. As this nuclear waste found its way into the water supply we all laughed and clipped fat cigars at the country club.
              But then I realized I didn't have quite enough money so I got together with an old friend in the late 70’S, and we took great delight in bulldozing forests to make suburbs. When the sissy state I lived in started cleaning up the rivers, and made my friends update their smokestacks with those damn clean air laws, I moved to Florida where I got involved heavily in sugar production making gargantuan profits in the 80's as Americas seriously began to overeat and sugar was a tremendous growth industry. We emptied the Lake Okeechobee watershed and farmed the rich mud. By farming I mean applying lots of chemicals. Taxpayers are now paying for a 2 Billion dollar cleanup of the Everglades and I still have 5 homes.
               These days me and my fourth wife go out to Chez Gougeeng every night in our Rolls Royce and there's a rags to riches story for you. mY newest wife grew up in Appalachia with coal dust in her fingernails and asbestos in her hair and joined the army. She got lucky because for 18 of her 20 years of service, all she did was sell boots and shoes at the commissary and now she has a lifetime pension and free medical care. She doesn't need it really because we are so rich, but it's nice to know it's there just in case Obama takes from us rich people who have worked hard all our lives."

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THIRD PARTY OR BUST
colloquialism

SECTION 2

  HISTORY OF THE PAGANS (COPYRIGHT 2008)

1-2-1     THE STONE PEOPLE

1       

2      TO INSPIRE YOU TO PREVENT THE FINAL SLAUGHTER. Of NATURE and HUMAN RIGHTS; OF FAMILY and COMMUNITY.

Top of Form

 

THE 
 STONE      
PEOPLE

A) Myth seeks truth   p

B)  The Other White People   p17

C)   Who are the Iberians

 

              As they talked, a black cloud was emerging from the horizon. Mt. Toba had erupted, and the ash cloud lingered over the earth for years. A mass extinction Science seems to have forgotten about, and rarely mentions.

            An untold number of plant species were extirpated and 75% of the animals died, 

And from what I gather, 90% of the humans also died.

Knowledge lost; traditions shattered … but this genetic bottleneck 74 thousand years ago, helps scientists study how we got here today.

A   MYTH SEEKS TRUTH        Academia.com warning

 I am responsible for what I have written, not for what you think I wrote or meant.  Simply stated, the opinions expressed herein, may at times resemble facts, so, be skeptical of anything you read during the viral information overload era. Particularly about the ancient past.

\

 It all started when I was researching the roots of witchcraft and trying to uncover how worshipful Pagan traditions could have  started.  

          I had a feeling I was going to find the truth about the first religion by going back to the days of the Cave Painters, 15 to 35 thousand years ago. 
          The Cave Painters lived in Southern France and the Iberian Peninsula, and history books seem to have forgotten them.

     Curiously at that time, hundreds of carved Venus figurines appeared in disparate and far-flung places. From Austria to Australia, if I remember correctly, and it’s another mystery the scientists are having trouble deciphering.

Cave art and carvings are all that remain of these most ancient people after their shelters and fire altars and clothes have weathered back into the earth.  But it was also the end of the Middle Stone Age, and time for the humans to kick it up a notch.

The Reindeer People, the proto-Iberians, were drawing in caves and making clothes for colder winters as the Ice Age peaked 20,000 years ago.  Fire and early metallurgy compelled them and sewing clothes with bones and sinew kept them warm on their treks north, and I imagine they also loved to sing.

They were singer-sewer, hunter-gatherer, tuber seeking frog eaters. 



In this era of stolen narratives, one of the biggest thefts has been by white male nationalists and their idea about who white people are.  Well, I got me a passel of facts to hassle these asshats with, so back atcha , you betcha.  

 

People be acting like all this anglo-saxon-germanic-scandinavian motif is what Europeans are all about. But these folks were relative newcomers compared to the Southern Europeans. I challenge them a bit about the anglo-saxon-germanic-scandinavian angle on their facebook pages. Everybody showing their DNA results and like, Greeks get ignored as do my Iberian exhortations. No Italian or French either.

My ancestors are the island hopping habiteurs of the Mediterranean Sea, the stone-shelter building boat people of the ancient days.  The Stone People are the indigenous Europeans, change my mind.    

 ###############################################

     As people research their white roots, it seems to be all about northern European traditions.  Warrior traditions and Gods. “Arrr, always recycle, and remember the skull of your enemy makes a swell drinking cup you can use over and over again. Arrrr I’m a bearded Viking”

          Well, hold on one cotton pickin’ minute there Sven…   What about the French and Portuguese traditions? Latest research indicates Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon mingled 45,000 years ago in North Central Portugal. They are the native Europeans. We are still here.

           What about all the Mediterranean people, the Berbers, Dogons, Sicilians and Malians who used the Mediterranean and mixed and traded with us for thousands of years? Vivo Italia! and hail Occitania, c’est la vie! Then there are the Cretans and Corsicans and non-Hellenic residents of the ancient Greek hinterlands who settled the land up to the Carpathian Mountains, not to mention thousands of other ancient places and forgotten peoples crushed by Christianity and Islam and random maniac tyrants in subsequent years. 
           We have our instinctive rituals and antlers are part of it and we wore them in our dances 1000 generations before the Nordics did. A little bit of cultural appropriation there, guys. Hey, if you believe in all that ancestor stuff, it would seem that this would be significant. I adore the band Heilung and the lead singer wears antlers quite a bit. People think they have to have Viking ancestors to be an authentic on these Indigenous European FB pages.

           According to white archaeologists and historians, the ancient people were either at war or worshiping at a sacred site all day long. That’s all you hear about, and never how they lived otherwise, like farming wasn’t important. The indigenous ancient Europeans farmed a bit and they did a whole lot of gathering and certainly the live food was abundant, but cavemen chasing Mammoths is all Hollywood can come up with.

            I have a contrasting story to tell concerning who can claim European ancestry.

 

        Where ARE my people?   I never see my people on the internet. We ate black bread and olives, drank clean water and ate figs and aloe, as we were gathering a multitude of berries and nuts that ripened at different times of the year, so yeah, we gathered. We did a lot of gathering. It was fun in many ways and a challenging game of life and death. You stored the extra meat in everyones belly.

           Remembering the previous years harvests they wandered and gathered. Following the paths of their ancestors. or where something would be finally ripe.

       The indigenous Europeans were gatherers and hunters, and if we didn’t hunt, we’d barter for a slab of Venison now and then. The abundance of the land produced huge harvests if your tribe was halfway clever.  The Red Deer replaced the Reindeer that migrated north as the Ice Age Ended, and they multiplied like rabbits.                              

        You know, trade A pound of ripe dates or something for a hunk of meat. Humanity survived because of the barter system which evolved out of tribal sharing. They had markets, even if it were just within the small community or village. Markets across great expanses contributed to peaceful interactions.

       

         What is my culture and where is it?  A couple of Sophia Loren movies and that’s about it!  As I discover my people’s heritage, I note that there doesn’t seem to be any TV shows that show US in our flaxen braids and horned helmets. Mis portrayed as beetle browed dimwits by white WASP historians and academics, we are  the Iberian Nationalists.

As it turns out, the Vikings weren’t even horn-helmeted, but that’s a misconception for another day. 98% of the Viking adults were farming, fishing and herding without their helmets.

         Not all Europeans were Vikings, duh, and most paid lip service to the Christians even after they were conquered. The forest people were the ones who kept traditions alive. The Romuvans, for instance, had their sacred fires to the gods and goddesses. The fire tender had a great responsibility in keeping the fire going 24/7 in many Slavic tribes. Lithuanian Pagans kept their fires going as the last European country to be christianized, with one fire even lasting until 1434.  

Our United States' history books are all about christian war victories and making young children learn about "heroic battles" in such a way that almost no one bats an eye at these genocidal murderous rampages. The atrocities were normalized because they were, "killing savages". We are indoctrinated to the myth of christians conquering savages, but hell no, that's just plain wrong. Read that as Pagan genocide. Everyone was savages except them?

         People are discovering that their Pre-Christian roots are interesting and the music, such as Heilung and Wardruna is compelling to the core. People hear the music and are entranced but then they hear racist nonsense from Odinists and other White Nationalists and they think that’s all there is.

        Regardless of who we think, is or isn’t a European, it turns out our ancient traditions were very much like the Native American and African tribes. I don’t know enough to know about Asian pre-history to really comment.

 

          In a ginormous leap of faith, the white nationalists have fraudulently claimed all of Europe as their own and twisted it into another white guy warrior world where “everyone’s a Captain Kirk”. The Germanic thing, that slippery slope of racism thing, is throwing shade now with the rampage of white nationalist terrorists in churches, mosques and synagogues in the United States, and numerous murders elsewhere.  People assuming there will be violence with stories of gun toting magats patrolling long early voting lines here in 2020.

        Sixty protestors have been hit with vehicles by these actual terrorists. Dylan Roof is a hero to these people. They tried to get Tim McVeigh to autograph something for them, but that didn’t work out. Their chaotic nonsense is divisive to our American future.

      Listen, most of us were fishers and farmers and traders in whatever region of the world our ancestors were from, and our economic philosophy was “let the buyer beware” in the markets. In 2020 we are about done with all this religious bullshit and right-wing nationalism, whatever form the evil shapeshifter takes. The Wetiko virus they are spreading throughout the world. There is no superior demographic. No Statists Satanists Nazis or Commies in my back yard.

        



 

         I’m going to introduce you to a new narrative. It’s not nationalism that will keep the storm of change going; it’s the rising of the clans. All the clans, all the independent groups of people around the world, uniting without hierarchy.  Marginalized ostracized peace-loving misfits of capitalism.  Returning us to the peaceful world we once had before the dominance of the warrior nations. This is what 80% of us want anyhow.

          The indigenous Africans and Europeans didn’t have the powerful weapons to stop the middle eastern invaders of christianity and islam and they lost their culture and land. 

          We had all found our little Edens between the Atlantic and the Caspian Sea. To live in peace, to be industrious at a craft we love. To help our neighbors and to be able to have our relations and friends close by.

        The African and European tribes could be reclaiming the villages they had for tens of thousands of years. The Autonomous Zone Movement is a return to our ancient ways. This is one way you Nazis got it wrong. You want to shoot protestors creating autonomous zones? Are you shittin’ me? They are creating what you want, an anarchist ethno-state.

     

Murderous monotheists loaded up with their godpus, guns and gangrenous greed are ruining this country and staining its constitutional fabric. Who are my people, I ask again? I’m like 56% Iberian and 25% French. Lots of Iberian in your DNA? Lots of Iberian in many peoples DNA? Well yeah, and here’s the story why. Iberia is Portugal and Spain and the coast of France to the lowlands of Italy. The islands of the Mediterranean.    

I am of the people who knew the Berbers and the Corsicans, the Canary Islanders and the Phoenicians. The Basques, the Gauls, the Goths. The Scots and Irish have strong strains of us in their veins. 

 

 It seems that the Frost Giants had built a mile thick glacier over Northern Europe, and the proto(K)Celts wandered over to our little corner of Europe in the southwest part of the continent for the duration of the Ice Age. Then they became known as the Celto-Iberians when they went back north. Clever folk, the game was abundant and the fishing superb in the cold waters of retreating glaciers. They are the link between the Iberians and the war like Aryan invaders many years later. All this Celtic folklore and another example of the  marginalization of the indigenous Iberian People.

There are fascinating remnants of ancient populations around the Mediterranean such as the Berbers and Basques and Tuaregs that cling to pieces of their ancient culture. Throughout Southern Europe there were hundreds of enclaves of diverse culture from Cordoba to The Caspian ten thousand years ago.   In time we were all buried alive by the Monotheistic invaders. And after Islam and Christianity invaded, the ancient past dissipated in a mist. Statues destroyed, traditions snuffed. Africa and North America were the most species-rich places on Earth due to our tremendous variations of watersheds but these lands were enthusiastically despoiled by Christianized Europeans.   

 

In ancient days we were the reindeer hunters, the cave painters and we may have migrated out to what should be Kurdistan.  In this general area 1500 years ago, there was once the Kingdom of Iberia.

The entirety of Iberia was the garden of Eden. We sailed the sea, but we loved our land which was abundant with everything we needed. In later years, the Masons and the Jewish people knew they were safe from persecution living with us and in turn, they brought us a written language, stonework and secret rituals.

The people of The Mediterranean mingled together best they could but then the so called, “civilized people” came along with crops and profit, and after that, the obsessive-compulsive military shenanigans of the Greeks and Romans. The country people, my ancestors, were thankful of the bounty of the earth and went to the witch for healing. A simple life in a land of abundance.
              

     The Mediterranean Race was a culture where everybody worked. In the summer we rested mid day. You were part of something, it was an early form of market socialism and there were ways to give to the struggling poor and the helpless cripples. There was abundance in the land and the natural instinct is to share.

We over grazed the land unfortunately, and the Sahara Desert grew. We didn’t understand the land back then as we understand it today in 2020, but those markets worked, and they always have worked till Plastic Capitalism and Too Big Business came along.  

What I’m suggesting is a unity based on our shared ancient Iberian identity and what may appear odd is that I include the people of Northern Africa.  Ra’ist academic mthrfckrs over the years have drawn Africa smaller than it actually is, to minimize how much was being stolen out of the rich land. There’s those white historians again. Framing everyone elses narrative.

 

 We intend to embrace all the worlds independent and unallied people in our Iberian Revolution, as we pull white racism out by the entire root.  We are the other white people. We been here ten times longer than you, so step aside, Proud Boys.

We embrace our brothers and sisters to the east, the Kurds’ and their ancient struggle. We connect them to the Kingdom of Iberia in what is present day Georgia …  or Ukraine or Armenia, somewhere out that way.  Kurds are genetically connected to Iberians, more so than other people of the Middle East.

Who made all of todays borders in the middle east? We can erase all the borders created by white people after WW1 and WW2 and invalidate Turkeys claim to the bulk of Kurdistan. Redraw the Middle East at a global summit and send the religious freaks back to where they came from. Genetically, Turks are the Johnny come lately of the middle east compared to our brothers and sisters of the Anatolian People and the Kurdish Nation.

  Northern Africa and the Mediterranean have always been part of the Iberian culture, our ancient heritage. The violence of the sword and scimitar has to finally end and all the estranged peoples of the world will unite. Mali doesn’t need islam. We need markets, not religion. Tax the rich and deregulate all small business. Just turn us loose and watch what gets invented. It will be easy to implement common sense measures for human dignity when we get the Wetiko Virus under control. The people as a whole need to control the land, not governments or corporations.

We need a land ethic far more than we need a deity talking to certain holy people. Their myths are full of holes all right so stop believing all that shit. NASE Northern Africa Southern Europe is the new kingdom of Iberia. Fuck around and fine out.

Africa south of the Sahara is plenty big, and organic crops grown there should be able to dominate world commerce. The people of Africa south of the Sahara need to displace these coercive elements on the continent and build Community Exchanges.  

Build the worlds energy dynamo in the Sahara with solar panels generating energy. Support a thickening of the green belt of millions of trees being planted by a group of countries to halt the advancing desertification in the South Sahara.

Rising ocean waters can be diverted into the middle of the Sahara in a natural canal lined with mangroves. Be some good fishin’. Might even produce rainfall. Just let the rising ocean drain into the Sahara and don’t listen to the scientists. Think of all the jobs and fisheries. Line the bottom with something that will filter the salt to keep the saline out of the aquifers. It’s time to start thinking big.

Countries from south of the Sahara can continue to plant trees. Leucana and Acacia and some other plant I can't pronounce, are greening the Sahara from the bottom up. People united for peace because war is a big waste of our time. Coalition for progress. People get it. Power hungry maniacs don’t.

    Turns out that numerous Neanderthal (silent h) skeletons are being found out towards Eurasia NOW instead of just in Europe, as had been the case. So it becomes apparent that the hub of Neanderthal activity was actually closer to the Caucasian Mountains. . . Armenia or Azerbaijan or wherever, I lost all those tabs, whose got time for all this research? Mt Ararat, where the Ark landed, lol, divides the Caucasus in two.  

I’m more than a little suspicious that their seems to be some weird shit going on with the Abrahamic religions, and what I believe is the coverup of the ancient hidden civilization. Where the Grimaldi People, the last of the Neanderthals, and the hunter gatherers of the Iberian Peninsula gathered together 45,000 years ago. Evidence of this was just released in September 2020.

Ancient Europeans have been inaccurately portrayed as hairy backed cave-dwelling lunkheads, but the Neanderthal is part of who we are and what no one will tell you, is that we are also the Grimaldi People.  

       Plot twist here, who were the Grimaldi People? 
 

      They began the ancient journey after Toba erupted 74 thousand years ago. The migrating Sans People from Southern Africa, having survived the nuclear winter of the Toba eruption, were migrating north, and were soon dosed with the ancient alien Dogon spirituality in Northwestern Africa. Did they mate with tick headed aliens? Some say it was here the aliens bred with us.

      These migrants morphed into the Grimaldi People, who are evidenced to have been crossing the straights of Gibraltar 60-65,000 years ago. The Out of Africa, western migration is also something scientists seemed to have missed. On purpose. A Homo Sapien migration from Western Africa ignored by racist academia.

         Who were the Grimaldi People? Black hobbits they were, and the reason Iberian men are so short. What people are unable to accept is that the Grimaldi People were the first modern humans to traverse the entirety of Iberia and southern Europe. Black people were the first modern humans to inhabit Europe, and they taught rock art to the Neanderthals about 60,000 years ago as evidenced by recent findings in caves in both Europe and Africa. 

         Ha ha take that you fucking Nazis around the world, the first Europeans were Africans!  Nyuck nyuck.

         Then there are the Afro-centric conspiracists and their theory that white people are albino freaks that need to be eliminated and this shit also needs to be discounted and disavowed. After all, this is where white nationalists get their white genocide theory from, so dudes, enough already.  Get it? We are so done with war.

        Forward together as humans. Help the least of us first. Who said that? We need a message of unity and consensus in these divisive times and we’uns need to shut down the abusive, authoritarian creeps who are always trying to gather together enough idiots to start something. So don’t be an idiot. Challenge the way its always been and remember no war but class war.

 

 

           Back to the Mt Toba eruption, there was intense cooling for a few years with the ash cloud circling the earth for many, many moons and consequently, the rapid regrowth of the ice caps and glaciers for a couple thousand years caused the ocean to lower for a time after Toba, exposing more land and land bridges. The clouds blanketed the earth for possibly five to ten years. Crossing Gibraltar could be done with a sturdy raft, and swam, if Gibraltar could be seen. During the last Ice Age, people walked during low tide.

               As a sidebar, I’m speculating that Winter Solstice traditions may have began with the ancient memory of Toba and the trauma that ensued during the aftermath of the explosion. People did anything that they could to get the sun to return, even wandering across continents. The survivors and their oral traditions embossed the traditions with ceremony and reverence.

Greeting the sun, our first religion. 

        

           

          
       When a great Ice Age finally arrived 50,000 years after
Toba, our oceans and seas and bays would soon to become 350 feet lower than today  during the worst of the cold weather, and it seems science is just coming to terms and contemplating this. White academicians love incrementalism, but catastrophism is what happened.

 

 

               **************************************************************************

        My great and fabulous ancestors savored the abundance the Mediterranean climate offered, and we were the people who hid the Druids as they were fleeing christian assassins. We docked the Templar ships on their way to hide in Scotland as they were escaping the same. We are genetically tied to people from Scotland to Kurdistan.  We’re here, we’re near and we persevere.

 

 

      THE OTHER WHITE PEOPLE

             

         We are the Iberians and in our heyday the earth was healthy. We spent our time netting fish and harvesting fruits and collecting and saving nuts as they came into season. We were hunting reindeer, sewing together clothes with sinew, and drawing lots of groovy shit in caves, you betcha.  Clueless, stuffed museum characters staring at their naughty bits. I don’t think so. With no defined male and female expectations, women were enjoying as much as men.  You betcha!

        Eventually, weak insecure patriarchal religions encouraged the slicing off of vital man parts while the other crazy desert religion chopped off womens parts to try and tame us all. Then insist they are civilized.  Not funny, I know, considering all the suffering.

 

           The Neanderthals had some bodacious disease fighting genetics and this hybrid vigor with the Grimaldi People created the Mediterranean People. I get stern looks when I say Neanderthals are the reason Italians have hair on their back. (I’ll edit these rude bits out later but Italians do have 4% Neanderthal compared to the European average of 1-2%. Just sayin’.) Not an insult anymore bro’. It’s also another reason Mediterranean men are shorter than their northern racist, European cousins.

 

          I also find it amusing, but disconcerting to others, when I say that Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were covered with a mile-thick sheet of ice while the Iberians were already livin’ in little hillbilly villages. Sitting around the fire every star filled night when it was cool enough.

       As noted before, many people came to our corner of Europe to hunker down during the worst of the last ice age, ten to twenty thousand years ago, and we lived in many small villages on both sides of the Mediterranean as one wave of people after another rolled in. The heart of the Western World at that time was Solutre, our ancient gathering place No wonder most of you mthrfckrs are Iberian. 

         Yessir We was hunting and gathering and in some places we had the ancient gardens. Fruit seeds that were spat out, survived, and grew into trees, and if you think they didn’t figure out shit like that, then you’re stupider then you look. The ancient people were far more civilized than realized and they had ten homes instead of one. Quite like the Owl, they needed territory to migrate to.

We lived in all sort of caves and natural protected areas. We had lookouts that kept the large carnivores away. We had oasis’s ‘n shit yo. Slept in the trees if that is all there was. Their home was where they left their spear points. 
          If I had a thousand square miles to wander, I'd find every kind of edible food there was. I’d know when the Huckleberries ripened and when the Geese would arrive. When the Crabs came to the river to spawn. Home was a favorite place, that special spot where they found Reindeer antlers and a cool artesian spring or where there were berries all summer long. The water was glistening, and they stayed clean and healthy. The fish were practically jumping in the pan.  Oh, the pan. Get to that in a minute.

        Academics and Pagan Reconstructionists are all about sacred spots and worshipping whatever, but think about it, how much time do you spend praying compared to how much time you spend getting and growing and cooking and eating food? Right? How about the time spent at work so you earn enough to spend it in the store on Friday? Most of us could give a shit less about religion. We lived our religion, it was everywhere.

      But back to the Iberian Revolution. 

       Why hell, we was so advanced we even had 32 symbols that have been found throughout Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Islands. Not 500 random doodles but the same 32 symbols in a widespread area and in the deepest caves, and yo, we had ports way before the Phoenicians and Sumerians came to trade with us. 

        Regarding ancient cultures and lifestyles, don't you think teenagers were tying logs together with vines to make rafts to go raise some hell somewhere?  You can be certain they weren’t the lifeless caricatures you see in museums. They had love and humor and wonder and friendship and 32 symbols. These symbols were not random shit, this was a language. We’ve been lost to history, “disappeared” as they’d say in the modern parlance. 
       Venus figurines, thousands of stone houses and a symbolic language. I was closing in on something in my search for the ancient religion it seemed.  

  

      Unfortunately, the Library of Alexandria was destroyed so this is my attempt to recreate and reconstruct the era that seems wiped clean from the history books. 10 to 25,000 years ago.  The clues are laying about but conventional wisdom is always a day late and a dollar short.

          Scientists are like, ugh, we don’t know what these 32 symbols mean. Were they maps of islands in the Sea, where and when ripening fruit occurred or where it was easy to catch game or where other members of the tribe were located. 

          Come on, a central village with small satellite communes have been around a lot longer than 10,000 years ago. Toblecki Tepe’s structures indicate some talented stone workers lived somewhere nearby. The Tigris Euphrates area, the so-called “cradle of civilization” should now be called the “bassinet of bullshit”.  I’m getting suspicious of that narrative. They downplay the Reindeer Peoples seemingly sturdy physique and modern sized brain.

            It's even possible that the Nordic runes were derived from the 32 symbols found throughout Iberian caves and dolmens. Now THAT is something that chafes their goiter.   I have finally found the indigenous Europeans and they are the proto-Iberians, the post Reindeer People. ৯

 

   

Who knows, maybe the symbols and drawings were an ancient version of tic tac toe that the aliens taught us. lol😃

 

          They figured shit out. They figured a lot of shit out. There were copper pans 25000 years ago, you betcha. An archaeologist has never found one, so therefore they never existed? I look at pictures of my ancestors with their wood sticks trying cooking meat and I go, "come on science, you're better than this". Then I read about Hannibals troops dying from roasting food on oleander branches and it’s like that disappointment again in being born into this primitive state of human development.

Historians always assumed my people were idiots, all standing around the fire burning their hands and shit trying to figure out how to cook meat and I’m reminded that there is a natural human instinct to fuck with shit around the fire. I know if I was living back then I’d be burning and melting shit, and if I found some copper or some other malleable shit, I’d be fuckin’ with it. Be sittin’ by the fire and shit, banging it with a rock, throwing it back in the fire till a flattened metal cooking utensil was created. Copper fucking pan! Yes! A spatula made of electrum … now we’re talking.

What else was there to do but explore their world and invent shit? Trying to create sparks by banging different rocks together.  There was no going to town to pick up some sunscreen for your primitive adventure.  

 

 But if an archaeologist doesn’t have a white peer review then your research or speculations are not valid.  You think the Proto Iberians were staring at the fire in wonderment and befuddlement?? Naw, they were fucking around burning shit and melting things when they weren’t carving beautiful Venus figurines or creating the 2500 stone houses and drawing in 3D in caves.  They went to work literally at the grindstone making their stone tools sharper than the Levite machetes that were used  many thousands of years later to behead the troublesome Pagans.  Buying the past to bury it.

You know that bit about “white people discovered America” four thousand years before the Bering Strait migrations of humans? The Solutrean Theory? That was my people Sven, not yours. You have no genetic link to the ancient Solutreans, do you? Then don’t claim white people discovered America. Not your kin, Wilhelm. Last tag.

        In too many cases, Science is just more white privilege. You know the schtick, western civ educated are the only legitimate sources of science. Harvard Yale blah blah blah. Folk knowledge is shit they think, tribal elders aren’t writing papers they’ll say. That’s the attitude of white colonialism.  I’m of the impression that there may be a much deeper racism in academia than there is in rural Alabama, and once you see it, you will never unsee it. 

        Out there in Jesusland, fetal-alcohol syndrome racists have traditionally discounted, “pointy-headed Ivy League” academics in years past.  Ironically, those liberal, elbow patch city slicker professors that are so despised as communists, are the ones who codified the ‘only white science is knowledge,’ scenario where racists get their "facts" from. You can't make this shit up. Moral high ground hypocrites.

        The central point in my efforts is to dig out the entire root of racism. If your cousin c'aint read, then read it to them. We are One. Ovum novo seclorum or whatever Latin is for "out of many, one". You know what white fascists, fuck you, how’s that?  Fucking Nazis stealing Pagan shit again. We're going to get our Swastika back, untainted, with an apology.  It's supposed to symbolize a double-headed ax that is being thrown, not to represent a fucking totalitarian super state of authoritarian idiots.  

 

               Tainted half-truths and beguiling near truths aren't enough for us anymore. Like in 1776, an enlightenment was at hand among the thinking populace and today we are dismayed at the lack of momentum towards the action we all know is needed.
           The main purpose of THE STONE PEOPLE is to invalidate the most destructive bigotry of our “modern” era, and that is from the white nationalists who are online recruiting disenfranchised white male teens, and on college campuses or late night faux-intellectual shows are pretending they are scientific in their presentations.

          Then there are outright racist liars like John de Nugent who calls himself the white rock of Solutre. Here it gets personal. I got nothing good to say about these Nordic Usurpers calling our Iberian Culture primitive then stealing the parts that made us from more advanced than his ancestors. De Nugent calls himself the white rock of of Solutre and I’m going to hunt him down on line.


         Got nothing good to say about the patriarhal posers either. The women were brutalized and children were less than goats and sheep to the obnoxious patriarchy that took hold in the three patriarchal religions. The little workers. No offense right?  Meanwhile, the Iberians were making Iberico, Mixing goat, sheep and cows milk.  Yessir we was eatin’ cheese, napping mid day, and staying clean in unpolluted water.  

         It was slack, bro, and you ain’t got it.  


      The never-ending stories of insane violence, forced conversions and blatantly ridiculous strictures of the three Middle Eastern, desert, kook religions, needs to have an ending. Apostasy Now!

           Many centuries later, the Spaniards became the absolute worst when it came to inhumane treatment. De Nugent says the Asians in another one of his diatribes. Exterminating the Canary Islanders, destroying the advanced Mayan written history. Spaniard missionaries hallucinating demons everywhere, much like Evangelicals today.   

           Old white historians have created the history we have read the last couple of hundred years and (cough cough), I must now note that white historians are slowly edging away from the oogly boogly dimwit Caveman concept of the Neanderthal, now that white people have the most Neanderthal heritage. Lol. No offense Italians. lol.

 

         Many years later when the ice melted at the end of the last ice age, and the plants and animals went north in an unprecedented abundance that the Celto-Iberians took advantage of. 

 

         Back to the stolen narrative issue, my people hunted reindeer and horses and had large gatherings in Solutre France, long before Tyr was even a gleam in Odins eye.

         Oh and Odin was real. He lived about 8000 years ago and this is purveyed from reputable researchers. Serious linguists who read ancient poetry.

 

 

       c  Who are the Iberians? 

       The Reindeer People followed the reindeer north as Europe warmed up 10,000 years ago, and the fish were so numerous, a bear could catch them with one paw tied behind his back. Other Proto-Iberians followed the sun east and stayed in sparsely populated gatherings bringing the initial technology of the Later Stone Age to those still stuck in the Paleolithic. Neolithic harbingers of invention.

          

        We migrated all the way to the Black Sea and discovered the Aryan people on the other side of the Caucasians and we taught them how to make clothes so they could head north to fight the frost giants. Wink wink nod nod. (they’ll believe anything)

 

       

     Alas, who were the Iberians? We were there in Egypt when Sashat was pounding in the stakes to build the pyramids. Our buddies, the Sumerians, made the hemp rope for the marking lines and pull carts. My people go back in time even further to Noblecki Tepe and the bare ground before construction. Who were we? Why did we gather together at Solutre and Tobleeki Teepee? Why were we erased from history? How are we considered second class Europeans, and why?

        This is my whole point. Right here. People telling me that no one cares about ancient history, but what I am trying to do it expose the entire root of the racism of white people before they start WW3. They have excluded Southern Europeans because we are mixed with all Mediterranean people. White supremacists are so full of shit. Say goodnight Dick.

         These American Nazis are serious, they've been fighting the commies since WW2 ended. They like Israel because they hope Armageddon happens. I shit you not, if you are new to some of these truths, I am not kidding. You're not seeing it on the news, I know. You need to grow and glow. 

      Who else but Christians would have a Hundred Years War and a continual cycle of atrocity and reprisal? Islam only seemed to have a cultural Renaissance 800-1000 AD because of all the rich Pagan cultures they encountered, and presumably accepted to some degree.  “Here comes the Sharif, hide the cards.”

         The Mediterranean Europeans seem slighted, so let’s embrace the concept of our ancestors, THE STONE PEOPLE.  From the Azores to Anatolia.

             

              Kurds are our ancient brothers and sisters and we are genetically connected, particularly with the Azoreans. Something about a J2 haplogroup. The proto Saami people in far northern Europe were dwellers of the cold Arctic and were more likely the first to arrive in America since they were used to the cold anyways, though I lend credence to the to the idea of Polynesians in South America as long as 18,000 years ago. The Solutreans following the Reindeer got lost in America 16,000 years ago. There is a curious thing about Solutrean stone spear points that were found in the Carolinas

       We have been given the history eraser button because of our unshakeable faith in the Goddess and that is the age-old deception for the ages. We love Cerridwen of the Celts, Freya of the north, Mary of the people and Nu Kua of the afterlife. The ancient Gaullic goddess Dexsiua, once hidden, she is the May Queen and the goddess of the life-giving southern wind. Don’t be alarmed now. Jurate and Yemaya of the oceans.

  We are Children of the Goddesses and this is very likely the reason we are invisible. Yeah, that’s the ticket, we’re the chosen people. Hidden from History. The third secret of Fatima concerns the female entities that were  the progenitors of intelligent design.

          The reindeer went north and were extirpated in southern and central Europe by the end of the ice age and it is believed the people that live there today are remnants of this tribe of reindeer hunters, They went right up to the Arctic Circle and are now known as the Saami. Their compelling drumming ritual and a life revolving around the deer remains to this day.  DNA testing shows that the Saami are related to the proto-Iberians. 

The Reindeer People of ancient days had sharpened bones for making clothes with animal pelts stitched together with sinew(muscles, ewww). Their fancy arrowheads were the most advanced at that time and as sharp as Roman swords many centuries later. Laurel leaf flints found in the Appalachians and dated to 16,000 years ago are the evidence people use to claim Europeans discovered America. They were skilled at using muscle fiber, sinew, for strapping down the occasional axe head.

Just because archaeologists haven’t found this or that artifact, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The Ancient People were more industrious than we give them credit for. But Science tells us axes weren't made till thousands of years later. Blahblahblah harvardnyale. There’s that over credentialed expert again, Mr. Science.  

             Keep in mind the reindeer hunters are also called the Cave Painters. Oh! What if they never painted in caves? Like every other artifact, it would have weathered away but since the discovery of the cave paintings in France and Altamira Spain, we have begun to piece together some of what happened in Pre-history. There was history before war-making communities with their walled cities came into being, and before the Bible told everyone that god made the world ***poof*** in like six days. Yeah okay. People still believe that shit, sad.

   This is why I think Atlanis was not an advanced society lost to history, destroyed by crystal technology and all that New Age nonsense you have heard. Stone Magic sure, but I am trying to get you to imagine a world being filled with primitive basic instincts. I think people tend towards kindness, and I can easily picture people hanging around the fire, drinking fermented fruit, eating small mammals, matter of factly. "Hey Joey, look what I caught!"   

Is it so outrageous to suppose these people had friendships and their sense of humor sometimes carried the day?   Ya reckon they laughed and had fun? You betcha! Most of history has weathered away or remains hidden, but more is being revealed every day and we need to stop thinking like white guys with clipboards obsessed with war.

Then, scientists(white academic elitists) pretend to speak for the ancient people? Everything is about gods and Booga Booga they claim, but most people chopped wood and carried water.  Could give a fuck about whatever god the preacher priest pastor or shaman talked about. Lifeless recreations in museums belie the fierce nature and inquisitive initiatives of our ancestors. And I do mean OUR ancestors. We are all in this together in the future. No more color or genders and let’s send islam and christianity back to the Middle East. They can get jobs on Dick Cheneys pipeline.

       Maybe the Goddesses are trying to tell us to wake up before growing populations and shrinking resources reach a point of perpetual crisis and, as I like to say, 100 hands clasped in prayer cannot plant a tree. Time for action before the Mother lays waste to us in a mass extinction.

Oxoheartsvoken is the peoples love. The love of all the people and the compassion that communicates, and a community of Love that binds us all together, and why I say, “We all learn to love all, eventually.” Giving when we can, receiving when we need it. It's there for all of us, except maybe some of those nasty Republican hypocrites whose souls will be extinguished when they die.  LOL.

   I am envisioning an anarchic Iberian union including all the ancient tribes that are about to disappear, The Swamp Arabs (they are the last vestiges of the Essenes, Jesus’ tribe) who were victims of Saddams genocide but hopefully survived.  

 

History was written by the winners, the warriors, the dogmatic ideologues, and TYPE A fartknockers. The braying sycophants worship the crumbling façade of manifest destiny and continue to perpetuate this predatory capitalist earth destroying philosophy. Pagans are among history’s losers; hung, banished, burned, conquered and otherwise, in 21st century parlance, hopelessly losing the battle in a hostile takeover bid.

 

We can save all the accumulated cultural memories in many places now, and we realize there is more to us than war. The poor and disenfranchised write their stories today, not just kings and lawyers and other nefarious characters of the court and the realm. The past was once ours, and though it was burned in Alexandria and destroyed in every culture that came into contact with Islam and Christianity, the myths abound for us to seek. So the premise I want to introduce is that we  should mobilize politically to drive these Abrahamic religions back to where they came from. Drive Islam and Christianity back to the Middle East. Pagan White Nationalists would agree with us there.

   The Pagans were on the receiving end of war and invasions, but most people lived their lives, in synchronization with = nature. They hunted and gathered and began the long process of knowing which plants would help which which ailments. Thus, the roots of the art of witchcraft.

 Pottery and poetry were invented and metallurgy was discovered. Just because science has not found much evidence of so-called civilized culture more than 10,000 years ago, does not mean a civilized culture did not exist. Ancient people had a diverse palette of food. Fields of Blackberries and Figs and Almonds or whatever. Wherever they camped, it was possible the seeds they spit or shit out would proliferate around these sites. They knew where to go throughout the year. When they weren’t wiped out with Ice Ages, Volcano Winters and hungry overwhelming predators, they persisted and traveled.                                                                            

              Maybe their buildings weren’t big with foundations, and their temples were nothing more than shrines in sacred places like, tree groves or special shelters. As I like to say ‘if an archaeologist doesn’t find it, does it mean it didn’t exist?'. The only reason we lack artifacts of culture before 10,000 B.C. is that nature has taken back all the wood and animal objects used by ancient people, recycled back into the earth. I also suspect any trace of the aforementioned STONE PEOPLE was destroyed as years rolled on. Unless there is something in the secret Vatican Library and Archival Pit!!!

 

             The reindeer people were a healthy group of hunter-gatherers that survived a total of 30,000 years, no one disputes that. However, historians and scientists kept shoving the evidence of the Reindeer Peoples (the indigenous Europeans and Proto-Iberians) advanced culture, under the conventional wisdom rug.   

 

 Scientists want to perpetuate the myth that people were once sickly, short and disease prone, but now, because of science, they declare, people are healthier in this modern age. Actually, the truth is that humans degenerated in the Middle Ages from their hardier hunter-gatherer Paleo and Neolithic ancestors and they became peasants and chumps that allowed feudalism to exist. Christianity has had the effect of making white people weak and servile. That's enough reason to send them back where they came from. 

The natural abundance of many ecosystems was destroyed, and people were moving to the cities, living like rats; and eventually slaves to the growing industrial machine in the 1800’s.

 They degenerated even further as advancements in science created a society where family farm incomes collapsed, because of Mechanized Agriculture.  Sterile, poison packed seeds became the norm. Altered genes in your cereal. “I don’t want to think about that right now.”

 

  When Ice Age glaciers melted, vast valleys of grass appeared because Mother Nature covers her dirt as quick as she can and all that water carved out new streams and valleys and made everything lush. Fish and game multiplied at an astounding rate I would assume, till the prey populations could catch up. They ate bunny rabbits and currants and figs and grasshoppers. There was not a call from the hubby at the store, “should I get the 15 oz or the 12 oz?” Just eat it.

      Fish roiled the fresh clean water of melting glaciers and filled the undammed streams and DDT-free wetlands that appeared. The humans mutated and evolved to the conditions they found themselves in. Like tomatoes. Like humans.

     Today it seems we are no longer evolving; we have reached the pinnacle of civilization people keep telling themselves. So here I am in Paradise Florida with my arm stuck out the window like a fuckin’ hillbilly or something. I look around and no one else has their window rolled down. Pasty old white people of West Vero Corridor grimly going from doctors to the stores. Superior genes lol. Gods waiting room they nervously note. Civilized statues. 

     From the home pod to the transportation pod to the doctor pod to the shopping pod. Cut off from nature forever. I mean, it’s 72 degrees, nearly always perfect weather for four months, but out of 50 cars only a handful of us outdoor workers have our car windows rolled down. What would even be on when it’s 72 degrees, heat? … AC? Millions of little white snowflakes silently melting into the pavement, not much raging against the light here in my little census district.

   This is not our culture and many are returning to a primal relationship with our natural surroundings. With ocean and sea levels 300 feet lower than they are today, the time of the Ice Age was a time of great migrations around The Mediterranean Sea. The deeply tribal indigenous Europeans had been living in peace for over twenty thousand years at that point.  

 

     Where did the ancient Iberians come from? As I stated, the Grimaldi people of Africa traversed southern Europe 60,000 years ago and remnant tribes remained behind with their Neanderthal girlfriends and later sipping gin and juice asking the Cro-magnards  out on dates.  That’s where we came from.   

          From the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea, villages used psychic powers to stay connected, and they traveled from village to village, much like the Masons with their lodges. This is where all these stone houses come in. Not masons, THE STONE PEOPLE. Way before the Masons. Most were hunter-gatherers but permanent settlements dotted the early human landscape 30 thousand years ago, contrary to what you have been told by white racist academicians. I mean c'mon, prairie dogs live in co-operative villages, you don't think humans were? 25,000 stone houses called Dolmens are not getting swept under the rug anytime soon.  Thousands in Romania alone, abandoned and unexplored.

 

For the future then. Imagine the unity of 200 African tribes and 200 American Indian tribes and all the other struggling indigenous people around the world I’m making a list of. The Berbers and Kurds and Ainu; the Sioux and the Cherokee and Nenets. The tribes in the Amazon are fighting the corporate fascists who are trying to burn it down. We are all fighting the fascists so remember sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. This story is not a pointless diatribe, but a call to arms.

Create a worldwide network with the CPSE. Community Product and Service Exchange(CPSE). The computer connects us, but the laws bind us. Let the buyer beware. Cavaet Emptor(CE). Use your head to help other people and we will all stand up together and end the suffering of two billion working poor making goods for those who don’t know how good they got it.

 Let the people who make a lot of money fix the roads and bridges since wearing out our road system was how they made their money. Then create transportation access for all the people in the world. This is how we work together globally because an authoritarian global centralized power is too close to completion and we are going to represent the needs of the people to stop this. Imagine someone dumber and meaner than t***P, it could happen.  So I propose to use governments to create what we need to be independent of government and monopolistic corporate control of all economies. The suck ass New World Order. Create a new economy as if the old one didn’t matter.   

Imagine sycophantic right-wing goons with high tech control of all satellites and computer networks.  Robot dogs patrolling your streets and sniffing your home for guns and liberation propaganda.  All Your base is theirs and also control of your garage door opener, your locks, your cameras to see how Fido is doing while you are at work. All your base is theirs, even your karaoke machine and self-driving car will be controlled from one command station filled with red hats. Enforced by robot dogs. “Arf!”

 

************ 


“    Most men are decent really; they just need to be hit upside the  

no  head now and then with the dull end of your spear. They need to 

         be reminded to be civil”--Skjaldmeyjar 985 A.D. 


D      1-2-2  DO AS YE WILL

The Eight Directions of Druddism

THE EIGHT DIRECTIONS OF DRUDDISM    "1……Encode Liberty ….2……Embed equality…3…. invalidate injustice …..4… Ostracize criminality  ….5….humble the mighty …6  …. vanquish cruelty ….7 ….    cultivate opportunity and …..8…..sleep on the couch as needed.”  

"It is okay to live with coercive authority, as there will be rewards in heaven"

The Wiccan code states, ‘DO AS YE WILL AND HARM NONE’, and I would like to introduce this angle to help advance our thinking. In the marketplace, it doesn't matter what religion we are, but how you interact with other people. What we buy is ALSO becoming more important, and I’d like to show you how. Given the choice of a 20 dollar shirt from a company in Bangladesh that pays its workers five dollars a day, or a 30 dollar shirt from Sweden, which should we choose?

Take the example of Lucy in Bangladesh, taken out of school at the age of 9 to work in a sweatshop. Now at 19, her hands are so sore and worn out, she doesn’t know how she keeps going. Every waking minute is torture and she is unable to see the gift that life is. Like many working poor, she is vulnerable to Christianity and Islams message; that it is okay to live with coercive authority, because there will be rewards in heaven. 

  Ignore the world, follow us, and you will be rewarded handsomely in Heaven. No one gets their money back on this one. Easy to promise, with no delivery date of salvation expected till after you die. Could there be a misplaced trust with this heaven bound clergy and their invisible product?                                                    

Back to that shirt: why would you want to pay ten dollars more to the Swedish manufacturer that treats its workers humanely with good pay and vacations?  They have to compete with Bangladeshi sweat shop workers who are the modern day slaves? Why change now?  It was our parents and grandparents purchases in the 60’s and 70’s that precipitated the exodus of clothing manufacturers from the United States.  A low-priced product means low wages for someone on the other side of the world and the Lords and Ladies of Fauntleroy need to conceptualize the notion that Capitalism has created an Illusion of Prosperity.

 Buy the cheaper shirt and laugh you say, it’s not my problem, but then it’s YOU that is helping to expand the sweatshop system that will eventually engulf every worker in the world and perpetuate a growing workplace tyranny as we return to neo-fuedalism.

      People tell me these lowest paid workers of the world need jobs too. The hidden truth is that were driven off the farm by technology where only the ruling oligarch gains. There will be inflation, if all workers made a decent wage, that’s true. By remaining silent, you allow that encroaching neo-feudalism and your grandchildren will look at you one day, all misty eyed and weary from another 14 hour day at the windowless microchip factory and ask,” Why did your generation just lay down and die, Grandma? How were you so brainwashed, that you couldn’t stand up to coercive authority, and prevent the emergence of corporate theocratic fascism. What shortsighted idiots!. Smart slaves is all we are. Toilers for the rich. "                                                                                                                                            To  everyone else who wants a peaceful world, I’m asking you to look a little deeper: do ye harm none when you buy that cheaper shirt or any of the other products created in unsafe conditions or where slave wages exist?  Like it or not we are all loosely connected in the global marketplace. We need to see the billions that slave for our low prices today. Low prices means someone is getting low wages.

              There has never been this many hungry people in the world. There have never been this many homeless people. Don't all lives count?  Shouldn't every country have a volunteer population cap? Billions are suffering as the human population skyrockets out of control; women thrown into factories, men working in a near death state in mines. The most fit work 16 hours a day and the misfits are homeless, living degrading lives.  This is the Low Prices mentality and the cheap food policy that has also failed. Your cheap shit is someone elses working misery.

 Lucy Thu in Bangladesh, who I HAD MENTIONED BEFORE, is so tired and disgusted that when shop mate Rosuh Rivutah loudly proclaims that they should start a union, Lucy’s hopes rise briefly as she dreams of some joy and happiness in her life. If she could earn more, SHE DREAMED, she could buy a refrigerator and TV for the family, and some rugs and maybe someday have children that wouldn’t starve to death. The next morning Rosuh is found dead with the implied warning that if you fight the power, you will die. Lucy’s despair deepens; it seems like the End of All Hope. UNION IS THE WORD THEY DARE NOT SPEAK.

The fact is that if there was a worldwide minimum wage of a dollar an hour, a pair of sneakers, for instance, would only increase from 70 to 75 dollars. Even though the workers wage has quadrupled, the price only goes up 7% because most of the cost of the product goes to corpulent executives and their sickening greed, along with the transportation costs and various forms of white collar crime that is derived from all this money sloshing around.  Most things can be made locally if everyone received fair wages. Or just create a new system of small and local business and ignore that Wall Street monster.                                

We have more products than we can manage, and we can create dignity, comfort and happiness in the lives of the two billion working poor in the next 20 years, or choose to continue to kowtow to the monied interests and one in 3 workers are destitute and indigent.

Boycotts work. Nestle and Monsanto for a start. It’s a sick, evil greed that has made the lives of billions, a hell on earth, but the concern of right wing wackos and moral high ground hypocrites is gay rights and other contrived moral issues. Being alive isn't enough; you need to be awake also, and you need to push forward or clear a path for others wherever you find yourself. Do as ye will but create a future for all. Be brave enough to confront the hoarders. I need to work a bit on that eighth one, any suggestions?

  "1……Encode Liberty ….2……Embed equality…3…. invalidate injustice …..

4… Ostracize criminality  ….5….humble the mighty …6  …. vanquish cruelty ….

7 ….    cultivate opportunity and …..8…..sleep on the couch as needed.”  



1 1-2-3-THE MEEK

THE MEEK

 

          A book from 1928 called Lady Chatterley’s Lover, describes post-WW1 England. The ruling class has power because they are the most qualified to lead, they told themselves, and don't forget that he who has the gold makes the rules. That is the actual golden rule. 
          In the book I mentioned, the coal miners in the town drag their feet home every day after 12 hours of slavery in unearthly, horrible conditions BELOW ground. The local oligarch, the owner of the mine, looks on their parade of gloom with pity, and repeats that he has “been given the burden of keeping the rabble in line.” 
          Maybe he could give them a free ham for chritsmas and the pitiful masses would be thankful, not realizing the actual criminal class that the Oligarchy is, and the theft of their labor and their lives must never be forgotten and I hope you hear their call.
           Oligarchs are mobsters and criminals who keep people in chronic poverty, but you’ve been brainwashed to trust the suit and tie. Keeping entire towns impoverished, what kind of asshole does this? Look at these extreme capitalists and their innitoal wealt; they have many WASPS among their ranks. These are the white people that the people of color should be upset with, not the working poor. “No lives matter” Ice T.

 The people of the single god theory and their political machinations began with burning and banning the meek a long time ago. Hell, they even "burned their own daughters if they playeth the whore" as it says in their book, the Old Testament.  Christians crawled into the exoskeleton of the dying Roman world and became the "Holy" Roman Empire.  
           They banned the Meek in 395 AD and began a thousand-year campaign to eradicate the meek and their thousands of gods and goddesses.  A long bloody struggle it was, till they finally conquered the Lithuanians who were the last remaining Pagans in Europe.  This was in 1384 when the 15-year-old prince of Lithuania married the 12-year-old christian princess of Poland. An inauspicious start for the purveyors of faith. Sacred fires of the Pagans were kept burning secretly until the last one was extinguished in 1434, it's ashes thrown in the river, just in case.
              They named buildings, rivers, and towns after their saints and they stuck the heads of dead Meek people on poles to convince other Meek people to give up their kind and fun loving cultures. 
             Meanwhile, a little south of the holy empire, the last prophet and the people of the scimitar began THEIR holy rampage of conquest. They considered themselves great warriors but they married little girls and beheaded many of the Meek and we say in retrospect, "yeah right dude, real manly". The ancient stories of the Meek were burned at the library of Alexandria so all traces of them would disappear. This was something Rabbi's, Caliphs, and Bishops could agree on. The original ancient civilization was removed from history
           The cross and scimitar invaded the indigenous cultures of the Meek of Africa and the Meek of Europe and took their gold as forced conversion became the order of the day. Their great holy leaders surveyed the world years later, and found that the Meek had finally been subdued, the blood and money cults of Abraham were victorious, and the Meek were subsumed. 
           Today the Meek have begun to make their voices heard. "There is no god" and "there are many gods and goddesses" the Pagans and Atheists declare. These are the new people of the word. The many words of the internet to double check all these con men of history. 
          The great goddess holds the lamp of liberty aloft to light the way and the great journey of the Meek has begun, guided by the words of the first true covenant of the people called the mutrfukon United States Constitution, bitches. Every day gets a little brighter as the dawn of civilization approaches and the Meek (today they are known as Pagans and Atheists and Independent thinkers) are cautiously are coming out of hiding to reclaim the cultures of the world. This is the basis of black and white unity.  
                The white WASP elite needs to feel the sting of the workers discontent from the inevitable worker's revolution.  Like in the south during the Civil War, how did the slaveowners with less than 2% of the population, convince the other 98% that secession and war was necessary?  600,000 deaths for bullshit. Che slave owners, sent the working and farming white people to their gruesome deaths. 
               In the north, nasty white WASPS opened factories fashioned after slave ships and Catholics such as the Irish and Italian were scorned and abused in them and in outdoor jobs. In todays America every European country has assimilated itself into the industrial greed machine with a white-collar parasite economy  perched atop the actual economy. 
                 Maligned no longer, the Meek and their peace-loving allies are poised to rule the earth. Ecosystem Stewardship is the phrase to replace resource gobbling for gold. When the dumb white demographic catches on, we will have another Progressive Revolution and a new attitude regarding wealth. When they realize all wages would go up if we put the 1% in jail. Just for fun. Let them feel the sting of profiling and charge them with a felony and tear up their corporate charter when criminal activity is found. 

 

    1-2-4 SoulView/Secret Rite 

All right, what happens if you accidently conjure up some demons?  I want to refer you to The Philosophy of Magic WRITTEN BY Arthur Versluis for one of the cures from ancient times.   “Another gesture is the extended middle finger, termed ‘the bird’ in American slang,  it is a sign of disrespect or hostility.  It was used in magic ritual in order to subdue demons. One other gesture which has been retained and which has an esoteric aspect is the most common of signs: the index finger touching the thumb, forming a circle, the three fingers, slightly bent, and extending outwards. Generally acknowledged as meaning that everything is all right, in esoteric terms it signifies the three pillars, or trinity of alchemical principles-Mercury Sulphur and Salt.”  

                                        

  Something the warrior elite have destroyed in themselves and their institutions the last 2,500 years, is……compassion. From the book, Philosophy of Magic. “The realization of Mind is none other than the ultimate compassion, And that is the seed, the emerald stone at the very heart of magic, it’s greatest secret and source of strength. Magic is, in the deepest sense, is compassion.”                                                                    

So what kind of magic would Gaia and other Goddesses have?   If I made up a religion and killed everyone who didn't like it and used various forms of behavior modification such as balming words after the stress they create.for a thousand years, there would be a good chance that its Holy Word was gospel truth. I made up my own creation myth and created a simple structure for others, so as to make up their own framework for spirituality. It would have to be a Pagan religion because Pagans believe whatever they want. The reform in the Pagan Reform Temple.

         Intelligent Design was in effect for hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens evolved, you see. The Goddesses and the Ancient Mother sped up the entire evolutionary process on our planet, and Homo Sapiens is a culmination of mammals evolution, for now.  There was a last tweak in our genome about 117,500 years ago which led to what scientists refer to as Homo sapiens Sapiens. It was also the last major spike of global warming. It's cyclical, every 100 to 120 thousand years

        This is where I tell the Christians and Islamics that their cults of personality are nothing more than histrionics and intellectual vomit, making a mockery of history and intelligence. The meek shall inherit the earth you have heard. Victims of the cross and scimitar are not conquered after all because you can't kill an idea whose time has come, and Pagan freedom of expression has emerged from the misty past to emerge in the land of liberty.

Venus, the soul bearer, arrived on the shores of the Garden of Eden. This is the crux of my CREATION MYTH,  There was a man on earth that she had chosen in advance. She was born as an adult, the first goddess to materialize on earth from the Spirit Realm.  The designated earthling lived in the largest village in the burgeoning Homo sapiens community, 117,500 or so years ago. 23 Mayan ages of 5125. At the time of Venus' arrival, there were at least 10,000  humans on earth, so there were no shenanigans like in the Adam and Eve story, where brothers mated with their sisters to begin the human race. 

Venus' husband, the first soul bearing primate, was a skilled hunter and  he was swarthy of complexion, and he was as healthy a human as anybody  today.   Venus and the first soul bearing husband then performed a secret rite of sacred sex and he received his soul view, the original umbilical to the Tree of Life, where all the souls are kept. All thirteen children they had, had souls...and all their childrens children, till eventually all homo sapiens had souls. Humans could now potentially connect with the divine. Now you know what really happened. Venus was carried to Earth by angels. Then carried to shore on a clam shell pulled by dolphins.

             

            It makes no sense that there is only a male god, and that's it.  The Mother of all Life is a dude? I don't think so. Big GrandfatherJudge,  with his anger management problems, and a willingness to torture someones soul for eternity would be a poor role model for a God. Perun, Thor, Priapus, Pan,  Odin and countless other Gods would be a better boss of the Universe than the angry desert god called Yeah Way.

           There's your Satan folks, hidden from view, yet right out in the open.  Some male god went KABLooey, and everything was created at once?  Creating Day and night and 400 billion suns!  What rubbish! What nonsense! You believe the loudmouth truck driver at the Waffle House? This creation myth gives their god far too much credit. The Devil and God are one and the same, I'm telling 'ya! The ultimate deception, if you believe that nonsense about the devil/satan/lucifer, that is.

    The Gnostics and Cathars and Templars are historical remnants of  rebels within the Catholic Church.  Countless pagan communities burnt to the ground and ironically all the sacred fires were put out. They were destroyed in the Islamic/Christian Holy Rampage of Conquest.

If Three patriarchal religions can say that I, and many others, are going to Hell, then I can certainly suggest that this god they revere is actually the great deceiver.  The ultimate wooden nickel, and the all-time, lying, deceitful, Olympic class  sack of shit. There I said it.  The Loudmouth Huckster God of the Old Testament is actually Satan in disguise. Trying to hide the Venus Creation Myth with an obvious  obfuscation. Telling a tall tale at the camel rest area, “god” kept traveling till he found a village where no one had heard of him. 

“Churches serve quasi-governmental functions, as do the Cub Scouts, the Rotary, Homeowners associations and Garden Clubs. Government should be our solid edge and vigilant protector of our rights, and all these civic and religious groups should contribute to a "high thread count in the fabric of freedom, ” 

    Here’s an example that shows that we can’t really know the what it's like in the afterlife or Otherworld                                             

1-2-5Angels at the Intersection

Two people are driving hurriedly; one person wants to make sure her young child arrived home safely from school; the boy has sounded unsure of himself on the phone when he has had to call. Another person has turned around to go home because he remembered he turned the oven burner to low; but never went back to turn it off. He had to hustle, burning food awaits, yet he needed to get to his 4 to 12 shift on time.                                  

 In car #1 Floyd is racing back to his burning oatmeal and as he approaches the intersection, he’s praying really hard, “Please God please please angels, Jesus Mary Joseph make this light turn green!”  In car #2 is Jane the donut shop employee who can’t quite get out early enough at work to pick up her son from school, and so at 9 years old the boy rides his bike for a mile and a half home. Cars go whizzing right by at fifty miles an hour and the snowbirds are back having problems adjusting their medication. It’s worrisome for a parent to give our children the same freedoms we had as children riding our bikes.                                                                               

 Don’t you know she is also praying like the Dickens and her guardian angel hears her plea, “Please please please don’t turn red I wanna get home please please please Diana keep the light green.”  Floyd’s spirit guide races ahead to the signal box to delay the electrical connection for the light. At the same time the guardian angel of the Diana Loving Pagan zooms ahead to the intersection to facilitate Jane’s plea. And, well, they meet. The angel says, “Hey, step aside little league.” The spirit guide replies “over my ethereal shadow of mercy.” Can all this be happening? We seem to think so. What are you thinking when you are praying for the light to stay green? It must be really congested in the “Otherworld” with all these angels and spirit guides flying around trying to keep up with all the wishes. How about the Bronx during rush hour?                                               

  You can bet God is also real busy with his laptop trying to keep up with all the requests. As one example, four million children in this world got sent to the principal’s office last month and 3.7 million of them prayed so that they wouldn’t get in trouble. This is the base of my skepticism; I believe anything is possible but had no faith in any one answer till recently.

Most religious bugaboo is pretty ridiculous but it’s no reason to be an atheist; the key is this: we are really lucky to be given this gift: just being alive is the gift, it’s all the God and Goddess are really able to give us. Who can tell what to believe but our gut instinct tells us that we have grown beyond slavery and torture and war and need a clean start. I was hoping The Millennium year was the time to build up some positive momentum and I feel Bill Clinton fell short on that although we ended up with a surplus and a reduced government.                                                                                       

   What then of the Good caused by religion? In a novel called “The Last Templar” , a secret scroll was discovered that was written by Jesus. Update: this was a TV movie recently and I missed it…arrr. Two researchers and an FBI cop in the story are all bent on revealing whatever they find and near the end of the book a terrible maelstrom capsized both boats during a chase scene and they found themselves washed ashore. The islanders were humble pious Catholic Greek peasants who were heavy on the sign of the cross and selfless kindness. No one had to be kind to the strangers, but the peasants were very gracious and the author was trying to illustrate that many of the peaceful people of the world are devout to their Catholic faith. The good remains, but an exorcism is needed to excise the evil.                     

    When given the choice to reveal a scroll with Jesus’ actual words the female researcher and male cop let the paper fly away from a cliffside, rather than disturb the tranquility that has been created by the good people of the world. Distrustful of each other in the beginning of the novel, the cop and researcher had fallen in love so that probably clouded their judgment and you can  just imagine the bad guy researcher, the third main character, saying “Noooooooooo!!!” as Jesus’ actual words  flutter down to the ocean.                                                          

Before I lose readers who think I seem to be mocking everything and everybody let me prepare you by way of explanation. In the chapter, Gods Idols and Icons, I list Fluffy the Cobra. He’s described as “light god-replaces hard to say light gods like Quetozaotacal”. I’m not making fun of Quetozaotacal. I’m trying to light a path for 21st century people who may find pagan paths a little too strange and easy to ridicule, and letting people know they can have some fun being a pagan. What is great about pagans is that they accept who you are, what you believe and Paganism might be the answer to give freedom to everyone in the world and embolden people to upend coercive authority and the growing Islamofascist threat to liberty. 

Seriously though, Fluffy is a God I added to my pantheon of Gods and Goddesses and he lit the way during my pagan pilgrimage to Salem. Never getting lost or delayed, even through New York City which is a white knuckle experience, even at four in the morning. If I can get someone to sit up and take notice of the Pagan resurgence through my attempts at humor, maybe I can get them to turn on the light in the closet of their spirituality. In this book I’m not preaching to the Pagan Choir, I want thoughtful intelligent and independent thinking people to consider becoming Pagans.                                                

I indulge in the serious also. The Wiccan code of morality begins with this statement. “Do what ye will and harm none.” So a Wiccan wouldn’t throw a box of tacks on the driveway of some idiot preacher that made the newspaper with a demented anti-Halloween tirade. We believe that what you do bad or good comes back to you three times as strong. I believe Wiccans and Pagans would be fundamentally better citizens since we aren’t like the Christians who would step over their own mother to smite a pagan OR HURL GOSSIP AND HATE AND BIGOTRY ABOUT SOMEONBE DIFFERENT THAN THEM.  Trust me, a child raised as a pagan will be just as likely to be kind and charitable and will integrate an upstanding morality into their lives seamlessly.

 1-2-6       The People of the Short Corn

WIKIPEDIA---   “In the Hopi Prophecy, it spoke of a white man who would come to them and help transform the entire continent into a spiritual paradise. He would be recognized because he would carry the fragment of stone which would complete their Holy Stone, filled with Indian writing characters. The Holy Stone had been preserved for thousands of years. Thus, when the white settlers came to the American continent, remembering their prophecy, they were openly welcomed. The Indians shared all they had. But, in return, all the White Man did was to take. The Indians noticed that their White Brothers had brought a cross. However, it was not enclosed by the circle of the Great Spirit, showing the White Man had lost his way.
                      The Indians believe that at the beginning of the 5th World, when man was told to disperse throughout the planet, from Four Corners, the White Race was one of the original races that went East. Upon their return to our continent, they had become confused and forgotten the ways of the Great Spirit. Further the prophecy continued, either the White Man would bring peace and harmony or attempt to totally destroy the Indian's way of life and take all his possessions and the land. If the latter occured, (which is clearly the case today) there would come a time when the Indian people would appear to be almost non-existent. 

            Yet, one day, they would rise out of nowhere, as the white race is falling due to their own ignorance and destruction, to lead a spiritual revolution, so all people on this continent would become attuned to the Great Spirit. To hold fast to the traditional ways even if it seemed that everything was against them. To protect Four Corners at all cost, because there is great power under the land that if it is allowed to escape, great destruction would result.   

                          Today, the Indians are going through the test to hold onto their traditional ways and protect the land. The Pahana (or Bahana) is the "Lost White Brother" of the Hopi; a white, bearded deity who appeared to the Hopi and worked many miracles. The Hopi say that he will return again and at his coming the wicked will be destroyed and a new age of peace will be ushered into the world. It is said he will bring with him a missing section of a sacred Hopi stone and that he will come wearing red. Traditionally, Hopis are buried facing eastward in expectation of the Pahana who will come from that direction.”--- WIKIPEDIA 

                  Wikipedia turns out to be very helpful with a writers needs. A good researcher can discern facts from fake. As I state elsewhere Romuvan paganism is the closest I can find for my own needs, but the Native Americans are my sentimental favorites. Among them I find the Hopis are most similar to the Romuvans who retained their cultural touhstones for many years. A Great Mother Goddess created the Hopi world and like The Romuvan Zemyna, the world is our mother. A child that is born will become part of the womans clan though naming is done by fathers clan. On the 20th day the child is taken to an eastward facing cliff and held out to be embraced by the rising sun. Did I hear someone say Lion King? 

     

Thanks for all those pagan fairy tales Walt. I know, he forgot about the good witches and demonized the bad ones. Most witches are good so I think Disney needs  to straighten it up with a movie about a good witch. Sabrina and Samantha didn’t quite capture the  authentico of witchcraft. Magic is real, supernatural powers such as turning  people into monkeys is show biz.                                                                                                                             

If you are open to it , Native American culture is all around when you live in Arizona. Papagos or O’odham were only 15 miles away when I lived on the west side of Tucson. Mother earth and the corn mother loom large with all indigenous people. I like to point out, the west side of the city has Cat Mountain and Kitt Peak the famous observatory, is not too far away.  The Hopis live in cliff dwellings in northern Arizona, as many people know, and despite the harsh conditions they can sustain themselves with crops. The lost white brother is certainly a curiosity and since white dominated technocracy could easily fail if their computer system were put out with an EMG burst from China or a mad scientist or something, , it could all land in the laps of the Hopis to spiritually lead the remnants.

Hopis have been on their land for over 11.000 years and I see a link between them and the Black Sea people who settled the land between the Black and Baltic Seas on Eurasian continent  seven to 10,000 years ago, even 14,000 years ago according to my Pagan Fairy Tales in ‘The Song oF Ooglok’.  Hopis believe in the 4 peoples who drifted from their lands and there could be some sort of unification that the Goddess has in mind with their ancient prophecy of the lost white brother.  The Spanish vanquished many of the Pueblo people but were unable to conquer or convert the Hopis.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

      Corn is very important to the Native Americans, for instance a shaman gives an ear of corn to the young child that the growing child uses in  various initiation ceremonies the next 20 years. I know an ear of corn can last 20 years because I want to tell you my own experience with corn. 1978 to 1983 I gardened in Arizona and found it true that the soil is fertile even if some years as little as 8 inches of rain can fall, this is why hoses were invented. I was an uncompromising organic gardener there and used a technique called sheet composting to enrich the soil, and grew some decent vegatables; carrots peppers and peas doing especially well for me.

      I may seem not so serious about some pagan ways but growing corn was very special to me and I was respectful to the ways of the First People. In ’84 I moved back to New England and worked extremely hard to re-establish myself in another region. In ’85 I got the notion to grow Indian sweet corn because I was disturbed by the hybrid corn that was exterminating the thousands of locally acclimated varieties in the Americas. I discovered teosinte which is the rumored wild relative of corn.                 

Teosinte was grown in the corners of corn fields, primarily by natives in Mexico. It was believed to strengthen the corn. It’s a 120 day crop I plant in April to Harvest in October here in Florida. In Connecticut it matured in less time.

 I ordered open pollinated sweet corn and planted it in the rich 16 inch topsoil of the Connecticut River valley. Aztec Black among many other varieties including one or two Hopi varieties. Unlike most, I wasn’t going for some sort of purity but wanted to cross pollinate all the varieties to create the New England Rainbow. Blue corn (black aztec) was a dominating color and people would look at them and go, Blue Corn?, who would eat blue corn?  Well, a couple of years later a blue corn chip came out that caught peoples attention and survives to this day. I have a vivid memory of me and Ivy shopping at Edwards in in 89 and being hilariously surprised.  

      After three years I was astonished at what I was producing. Some ears were getting smaller and smaller. I don’t know what scientists call it, but I called it back breeding. There seemed to be majick in the pollen. My goal was to breed a variety I was going to call New England Rainbow, so I ordered different colored Indian sweet corn seeds and wrote to some of these seedsmen and women during my third year and got back some hand written replies. One dude named White Eagle (he later invent the glass gem corn variety, sent me 5 different varieties to mix in with my open pollinated sweet corn and wished me luck. Carl Barnes ah the memory still works. It’s a name of high honor but the return address of the seeds was Nebraska, a company called ‘Corns’.  I believe his seeds helped accelerate what I was doing. He gave me one pack of flint corn seeds and that didn’t make sense but I’ll bet he knew about breeding and there was something I needed to learn here. The genetic variety exploded that third year.                                                                                     

  Hybrid corn is made to  be harvested by Hexxus like machines all on the same day but open pollinated sweet corn is harvested over a 4 week period. So if I made 3 plantings, 3 weeks apart, I could theoretically harvest for 12 weeks. Mid July to frost and the teosinte tasseling in September. Another disadvantage was that it only was sweet for two days then it began to get hard and inedible. Another  goal was to grind up those ears that were overripe and make corn meal, which I  have yet to do. Note to self: go get a corn grinder to make corn meal, and get back to growing corn again. ED WHITE EAGLE
                                                                 Hopi Elder

(79)I woke this morning and knew the spirit was inspiring me to write to you.  Though I didn't want to think about it, because it takes time to do these things and I have much to do this time of year.  I tried to ignore the feeling that filled my heart and went about my day.  I wasn't sure what I was supposed to write to you anyway.  Then in the afternoon, I was working at my son's house.  I was helping him till his soil for his garden.  The tiller hit a big rock, and I reached down to move it.  When I put my hands into the soil I realized what the Great Spirit wanted me to tell those of you who will listen to the words of this old man.  So once again I am here to share with you my knowledge.

 I felt my wife's spirit in the rock I grabbed from the ground in my son's yard today.  More than 20 years ago this year, my wife left the mortal life and became one with the ancestors. A day does not go by that I do not think of her, but every spring when I work the land with my son and grandsons, I think of her more.  More than think of her, I know I am touching her because our world is made from the bones of our ancestors.

Some people believe in heaven, angels and things like that.  Hopi do not in the same way.  We believe that the Great Spirit is all around us, so we don't have to go to heaven to meet him.  We believe that our ancestors live with us, guide us and share with us, so we don't have to call on angels to help us.  Maybe those who believe in angels are right for themselves, but not for Hopi. The Hopi have a different view of their relationship to the Earth.  Because when we look at a tree, a plant or a flower we see our loved ones who have gone.  We see our mothers, fathers, grandparents.  We see our wives, husbands and children.  We see our past alive again.

When the Hopi die, they are buried in the ground in a simple way.  Soon, with the help of the animals and bugs, they are returned to the ground and become one with the Mother Earth.  They return to the Earth that they are made from.  Their spirit --soul maybe -- goes on in some way to become one with the Ancestors.  But also their spirit and their body becomes one with the Earth.  Then, when they are one with the Earth, it is their being we are planting our food in.  It is their body we are walking on.  They fall as rain on our heads and make our corn grow.  It is their body that is in the corn we eat.  They hold the key to our continued life. They become a working part of the cycle of life on the Earth in a way they could not be as people.  And when we each pass away from this life, we too, in our own ways, will return to the Earth.  It doesn't matter if you are not Hopi.  It doesn't matter if you are buried or burned or even lost at sea.  Your body will return to the Mother that gave it life and you will become part of the chain that brings life to the world.

It is this chain of life that is very real to the Red Man.  It is this chain of life that challenges us to remember that in every blade of grass and every ear of corn our Ancestors, and (thus) our own existence lies.  Everything on the Earth is sacred.  How could you not hold it that way?  When you destroy any part of the Earth, you are destroying your past. When you care for the Earth, you are caring for yourself. Our Ancestors surround us every moment of every day.  They are not just ghosts or memories.  They are the water we drink, the ground we step on.  They are the world around us. Our past is all around us.  Our future too.  For it is the dust that is between your toes that may someday be the things your children and grandchildren are made of.  Nothing ever goes away.  It is here with us.”                                                          ----- Ed White Eagle

 

 

      I was a Reagan era pagan(but never called myself that), and I did actually pray to what I imagined was the Corn Mother.  I used a traditional planting stick to poke holes in the ground after praying and every year became more astonished at what happened. Ears were growing on the top of the plant and at the base. Strange configurations in the rows of kernels that I read were what the primitive corn “carbon dated” to three thousand years ago looked like. Double cobs and most assuredly cobs with both teosinte and corn on the same cob, the same row even. Even more primitive ears emerged that there were not even pictures for, but reconstructive drawings of what the early corn ancestors looked like. I really wish I could get someone who knows corn history to come and look at them. And yes, bring them to the lab to identify the genomic structure. I never quite came up with primitive varieties in my attempts in Florida. Happy ending here. I still have them, the genetic sports of the New England Rainbow Sweet Corn and they are nearly 20 years old, so I can prove I am not lying or kidding.

      Back to Connecticut I was more interested in growing the corn as a genetics experiment, eating the ones that came out a decent size and good flavor was gravy. I have an ear that has teosinte like kernels and kernels that look like small kernels of sweet corn. As much as I’d like to believe the corn myths about the corn mother giving corn to people, I believe I back breeded right to the beginning. Corn must have started out as a genetic variation of teosinte, I have cobs with teosinte and blue corn in them; perhaps even triggered by the goddesses intelligent design, the Corn Mother, maybe Freya in disguise,  providing  the trigger to the change, evolution has to happen on its own. Not, Poof! you are now corn. In a catalog I found a real curiosity, it was a nearly extinct variety of PERENNIAL teosinte. Even though in the 90’s I was drifting back to atheism I prayed really hard to pollinate a perennial sweet corn. Imagine the implication of perennial corn!

      As much promise as this breeding showed: my genetic bank is now threadbare and may no longer be viable. I kept ears for breeding in the nineties but have only  been able to grow in 98-99 and 02-03. August ’07 and my teosinte comes up every year without planting from previous years seeds and will tassel as usual in October. With everything else I need to do, I’m determined to grow open pollinated sweet corn again.                                                                                 

  Genetics is an insidious intrusion into natural evolution. I suspect something is going on behind the scenes and I’d like to speculate about it. After the mid nineties, the perennial teosinte seemed unavailable. I think some corporation has bought all current stocks and are attempting to take a short cut to what I wanted to do naturally. They may be attempting to splice the perennial gene to their hybrid corn. Imagine the money that could be made if you could plant corn one year and have it come up a second year, or even a third. This seed would be expensive I’m here to tell you and  the inventing company would slaughter competing companies with this product and could corner the market for ethanol. 

The way I wanted to do it would be not to make a sterile hybrid but a perennial rainbow open pollinated sweet corn I’d sell only to the poor farmers in the world. All they’d have to do was put manure between the rows. Then save the seed for the next year to expand their field and share with farmers in other climates and locales and elevations, although Mexico would be the most logical place because this is where the nearly extinct perennial seed was discovered and I presume there would be a minimum soil temperature that would need to be maintained along with otherc compatibility factors.                                                                                               Here’s an odd story from five years back. I went looking for the perennial teosinte again and my search yielded a result. My finger paused briefly, I held my breath, was I going to be able to begin the experiment again? I don’t care what it costs. I pressed to find out more and suddenly my computer had a spaz. Can’t go on line, reboot, fegeddabout it. The Bell South Help Center came on board to repair the problem, something strange here, search for perennial teosinte and get a virus.

 

      People enthusiastically scarf  down corn every year and I don’t really have a fundamental problem with this. What happened in the last 50 years, however, is that your average farmer was no longer able to save the seed for the next year because of the nature of these F1 hybrids. Farms became mechanized and ecosystems were torn apart for agricultural production. Small farms went deeper into debt, it was overplanted creating gluts and farms became corn factories. Pollution is created by the mechanized farm equipment, water tables dropped because the mega farms needed irrigation water, corn was shipped much furthur creating more pollution and trucks wear out roads (and especially bridges) increasing highway budgets and on and on. American topsoil has been reduced by 50% the last 100 years a good deal of that by corn. What will they be expected to farm  on seven generations from now? The true price of 4 ears for a dollar is not really calculated as resources are depleted, critical resources such as topsoil. What is the diference between the earth and the moon? The simple answer is topsoil. When topsoil is depleted the land turns to desert.                                                                                                  

   Could the Indians, pagans all, have had such a bad life? Hopis have a strong sense of monogamy so STD’s weren’t  common, and so I imagine what my life would be like if I was born an Inca or a Hopi. Get up early in the morning, mutual pleasure assured, go running and breath in air not polluted by automobiles and  listen  to the birds and animals and not loudmouths on their cellphones. Stop at some eastward facing cliff to stretch and greet the sun. Run back to the corn field to chase away birds or raccons, check for earworm infestation and squeeze them out (or eat them?).  Get the bison shoulder bone tool to scrape out the weeds, greet your friends out in the field, because many were involved with growing the food they all shared.

      Harvesting of fresh corn was done, the Indian Sweet Corn has only three days when it’s sweet. Take your sack and bring food to your neighbors. Go back home and appreciate and love your partner and help her with things, take a nap, look for people to play games and have fun or help people repair or upgrade living areas. Prepare the supper, maybe talk to the medicine man, wait  for the evening star to come out or help other tribe members out with problems.

      What are we about in our modern ways? Get stressed trying to go out early to work, feeding children with no relaxing time together as the children spend 7 hours a day learning virtually nothing while our polluting car may have a dead battery and so we are late for a meeting where cut throat competition is the order of the day. Is a community so bad then that is based on togetherness and growing corn?  This is not socialism my friends, but a fundamental form of sustainable capitalism.          

The Mayas and Aztecs devised calendars more accurate than any other known at that time, people know this if they watch the History channel but do the shows state the reason for these calendars? It was to know the correct time to plant the corn. Corn could be stored for the cold weather, corn meal and homemade food such as tortillas can be made at any time. Tribes concerned with famine would plant enough so two years worth of food could be saved.

        People are taking a closer look at the Mayans lately and how many things are lining up for a shock to the earth. Solar flares will be doing  their cyclical extreme and numerous other potential disasters seem to be all in the same 2012 basket. The best book on what could happen in 2012 is Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence E. Joseph and he was guided by two Mayans who are modern day shamans. Here is one statement  he makes, (50)  “…the whole Bible-Quran crowd would feel  aced out of the most important prophecy in the history of humanity by a bunch of pagans from the boonies of Central America.” Joseph goes on to explain how the three patriarchal religions are trying to make Armageddon happen, trying to  force circumstances to fit Bible Prophecy. The Temple of the Mount could become quite a contentious issue and the Christian Theme Park in the nearby area where the Great Battle of Good and Evil will happen seems kind of odd to me. The theme park should be opened just before 2012. Alas, worst apocalypse ever.

      Mayans have no love of what archeologists do on their land and here a scientist gives his view. ”…in one such case I was told about the ruins that we have never discovered. Apparently the Maya are to this day still keeping secrets from the general public about their great history in Central America. I was informed that some ruins were buried by people to preserve their temples till the Gods come back from the Stars. A Mayan informed me that the real temple where the Great Lightning Bolt will hit on December 12-21-, has not been discovered. And most Maya do not know the location.” Or maybe ... the actual date is 12-21-21

 

                             A story to end Corn  “Yawpa the Mockingbird said, “There is still something to be done-the selection of the Corn.” The people gathered around as the Mockingbird laid many ears of corn on the ground; One ear was yellow, one was white, one was red, one was grey, some were speckled, one was a stubby ear with blue kernels, and one was not quite corn but merely Kwakwi grass with seeds at the top. The Mockingbirtd said “each of these ears brings with it a way of life. The one who chooses the yellow ear will have a life full of enjoyment and prosperity but his span of life will be small. The  short ear with the blue kernels will bring a life full of work and hardship but the years will be many. (Meaning the longetivity of the entire tribe). The Mocking bird explained the life that went with each color they chose. The Navaho quickly chose the yellow ear, a short life of enjoyment. The Sioux took the white corn, The  Supais chose the ear speckled with yellow, the Comanches took the red, Utes took the flint.

                        At last two ears remained , the leader of the Apaches chose the longest. It was the Kwakwi grass. Only  the Hopis had not chosen. The  ear that was left was the stubby blue ear. The leader of the Hopis picked it up and said, “We were slow in choosing. Therefore we must take the shortest ear of all. We shall have a life of hardship but it will be a long lasting life. Other tribes may perish, but we, The Hopis will survive all adversities. Thus the Hopis became the people of the short corn.”



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Pagan Millenium
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Author: Zone 9 Pagan
Posted: July 18th. 2010
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The influence of paganism is everywhere and yet this word stirs up the ancient hatred, a brainwashing that has been going on for many hundreds of years by an illegitimate authority as there has ever been. My intention is not to preach to the pagan choir but to grab the attention of those who are seeking new answers. I want to explain to them that it is okay to be a Pagan and to accept others that call themselves Pagan. If you are, then have confidence in what you believe and "worship with exuberance" as Julian the last pagan emperor of Rome told the population, Christians and Pagans all.  


Masons and Rosicrucian’s and all the other secret societies need to come forward and peel away the Christian facade of their organizations and let it be a secret no longer. There are many ways to seek the Creator or search for a truth to guide you. The Inquisition is over and the tolerance of the American people is beyond reproach. We cling to our freedom of speech as if it were life itself.

Paganism is just below the radar of the media and there are so many issues regarding our freedom of religion it will be like the 50's when the concept of race equality was a wildfire in the shag carpeting of the day, or like in 1919 when the American Congress actually had to debate the merits of allowing women to vote or like in 1834 one of the first organized strikes was started by child workers who went on strike to lower the workday to 11 hours.

Paganism suffers from so many glaring misconceptions in the folklore of our society and your average American will be shocked to realize that pagans are not evil after all, and witches particually are actually do-gooders.   Americans will observe the vigorous opposition pagans get from an outspoken minority as we begin to surface. Open-minded tolerant Americans would be more supportive than we can imagine… and they are the actual majority. The Independent majority.

Back in 1774 when Israel Putnam heard about the first battle of our revolutionary war, he unhitched his horse from his plow and with the soil of his homeland on his boots and he rode off to join the fight for independence. Freedom of association, expression and the pursuit of happiness are compatible with pagan lifestyles whereas followers of patriarchal religions are not allowed to even use Tarot cards as one simple example. Writers such as Phyllis Orcutt in 'The Book of Shadows' and Alan Butler in 'The Goddess, the Grail and the Lodge' make a strong case that America was founded by masons, deists, and free thinkers of every stripe. They couldn’t help it they were rich. In my story, The Liberty Tree, we read about Paul Revere who nearly spent the winter of 1774-5 in jail because of debts.

Thomas Jefferson’s ‘God of Nature’, Washington's and others ‘Providence’, and the Masons’ deepest mysteries reflect the Goddess at Adelphi along with a general acceptance of the god and the goddess together. The phrase ‘under God’ was only added in 1954 to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance and ‘In God We Trust’ was added to money in the mid 1800's. If a religion was involved in the founding of the country, it was decidedly not the Christian religion. Considering the American freedoms, it doesn’t seem possible.

Allow to me to add some early American History to show pagans that we have a stake in American freedoms:

With not a bishop in sight, George Washington took the oath of office in full Mason regalia and there are people on Youtube who insist Masons are evil and the Founding Revolutionaries were Goddess believers. Yeah. What of it?. Thomas Paine echoed the sentiments of Edward Gibbon denouncing the attempt of religion to usurp the power that freedom brings. Edward Gibbon noting how Christianity usurped the power of Rome in a book he wrote at the time of the American Revolution.
Thomas Paine, in his part of the world, denounced the steady insinuation of religious strictures that contrasted with the freedoms American colonists were seeking.

The Inquisition was still fresh in his 18th century mind. Among the first people of America, the Iroquois and Mohawk had governing charters that codified individual freedom. Women’s gifts were honored, and women made certain important tribal decisions. There was a lot of friendliness and trade between the natives and the roughneck pioneers at first because they were regarded as just another tribe. It was the ‘elitists’ (politicians and preachers who actively promoted their slaughter. The Native Americans were seen as far too pagan to be managed and assimilated and, being extremely earth centered, they could never really be Christians.

The natives helped the Mayflower gang led by their preachers who were unprepared for life in the wilderness. Earlier than that in Jamestown, indentured servants helped the rich preppies attempt to settle Virginia. After the rich dudes left for England one cold winter, the workers fled to purportedly live with the Croatans, a nearby Indian tribe, and were never seen again.

The arriving black slaves were forcibly converted (Yemaya and voodoo went underground or mixed with Christianity in some cases) and the red genocide was instrumental in bringing down the Great Spirit who ruled our continent. Today, Pagan expression of the black and red people needs to be free to flourish once again as guaranteed by our constitution.

There are thirteen stars on our flag in a circle, thirteen stars and stripes. This despite “13” being considered an unlucky number. It is well known Lady Liberty represents a goddess and Washington D.C. is laid out as an outdoor Mason Lodge.
Our first four presidents were downright antagonistic to the pesky preachers pontificating their pernicious platitudes.

Our American mythology carefully sidesteps the pagan aspects of what actually happened. But there is a clue in the Bible: The meek shall inherit the earth. Well, guess who the meek are? The conquered people, the people whose cultures included many goddesses, and yes.... when I say the pledge of allegiance I say ‘one nation under the goddesses.’ The people that were once pushed aside are today on the rise.

Plymouth Massachusetts became the first permanent European town in 1620 and other settlements began on the nearby east coast. The Puritans were a dominant force and despite escaping the clutches of tyrannical royalty they proceeded to impose a ridiculously restrictive theocracy on themselves when they got here. If you said a curse word and you were found out, you might get your tongue nailed to a board in the center of town. They were some sick bastards.

It wasn't long before people tired of this religious extreme and the tally-ho of English elitists became the westward-ho of those disenchanted with the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thus, began the westward movement of Europeans in this country. Many pioneers were handier with an ax than a Bible and these unsung heroes never wrote down their history. These non-Puritans were agriculturally independent and self-sufficient working slobs who were ruled by good spirits and generally mingled with the natives and the Indians were welcoming. The Pagan traditions that survived in the forests of Europe came to the New World.

Then there is the case of Thomas Morton. He was a spirited and fun-loving rich dude. He and his mates wanted to grow their town after they started it in 1624. He often mocked Miles Standish and his Puritan Stormtroopers but when he erected America’s first Maypole to show the local maidens how to party in 1626, he was finally banished and deported. Exuberant pagan joy needed to be crushed at every turn. The war had begun, the war to banish paganism in the New World. The friendly Native pagans unfortunately were not aware that the war was already over a thousand years old and the traditions of faith-based genocide and centuries of deforestation had landed on their shores.

Encouraged by a Podunk Chief whose tribe were settled on the east side of the Connecticut River, settlers explored the west side and founded a Dutch trading post in 1632 at the future site of Wethersfield. In 1633, the first permanent settlement was built in Windsor. In 1634, Wethersfield became the first incorporated town and in 1635, an area between the two towns, Hartford was founded. Wethersfield, Windsor and Hartford commingled in trade and held town meetings and in 1639 banded together into what they called, "One Publick state or commonwealth".

Inspired by Thomas Hookers iconoclastic sermons, Roger Ludlow drew up a document for governing this new organization and called it The Fundamental Orders and he created what has been praised as the first practical constitution to declare, "The foundation of authority rests with the free consent of the people." Also, at that time in 1636 Roger Williams said the king had no right claim native lands and was banished for his efforts and went south to Rhode Island where he started his town through legal means, purchasing land from the Narragansetts at fair value.

By 1662, the Connecticut Colony was a proud and thriving region. The locally appointed governor sailed across the pond to visit the King Of England and they discussed commerce and other logical things. Meanwhile, most of the population paid lip service to the preachers who were whipping up an anti-native frenzy. To Christians, the New World was filled with pagans, and a popular T-shirt back then would have been, "So little time, so many pagans to smite."

These moral high ground hypocrites saw the native population as troublesome and ungovernable and sought their extinction from the start. Yet, the population began drifting away from this religious extreme and according to Richard Hofstadter, a famous historian, “by 1750 only one in seven had a religious affiliation”. (An important statistic to those seeking to counter the urban legend that this country was founded by Christians.)

Justice for all had to begin somewhere, it had to begin somehow and these pioneers left us an enduring structure that has led to freedom for all today. “Authority is created from the free consent of the people” meant landowners at that time but evolved over time to include everyone.

In 1687 a new king, James the second, threw a fit when he heard about the Fundamental Orders and stated angrily "Authority is created from the free consent of the People!! This is an outrage!!" He appointed a new governor, Sir Edmund Andros, to sail to the Connecticut Colony and demand they give up their precious charter, the now controversial Fundamental Orders. Upon arriving, Andros endured a town meeting and listened to people rant and rave about his appointment and authority.

Meeting day fell on Halloween and as evening wore on candles were lit at the center of a large table. Apparently either some magic happened, or the town narcoleptic fell asleep at the main table and knocked the candles over and consequently the room went dark and the original copy of the Fundamental Orders that was in plain view had disappeared even though no one left the meeting. Tradition states that the charter was thrown out the window to someone on horseback and hidden in a giant oak tree. As years went by, the hidden charter was a source of pride and mystery and an important part of the fuel that built our 1776 revolutionary machine.

That hiding place, that infamous tree, became known as the Charter Oak. The state of Connecticut chose this symbol for its state quarter as representative of its ideals. As a pagan whose path is influenced by Europeans who venerated the oak and often built shrines nearby or had eternal fires near them, this was a triumphant moment. Then further research shows that the local native people used this very same oak as their guide to planting corn.

As land was being cleared near the tree, in 1646, the local natives pleaded with the farmer not to cut this tree because the tree was their guide. When the leaves were the size of mouse ears on the consecrated tree, they did their planting and he obliged them by not cutting the tree down. This famous symbol of defiance, the Charter Oak, already an old tree, should also be a pagan symbol of the America we need for the future.

Sacred sites desecrated, statues and altars destroyed; shrines and wells and caves defiled and ancient trees and sacred groves incinerated: everywhere in the world that pagans prayed and loved and appreciated the goddesses and gods has been under attack. While the free consent of the people to express themselves as a witch or druid is denied anywhere in this country, then the full flowering of the Constitution has not occurred.

Yes, it may take some time but the millennium of patriarchy, war and slavery has begun to shift into our peaceful spiritual future of the Pagan Millennium.

 

1-2-8   MASONS   RUNES   AND  RITUAL                                                                                 

          There are rudimentary attempts in secret locations to get back what the ancients knew, which was more than magic, they were powers. They were able to dematerialize material objects till they were nearly invisible and 10-90% of their weight would disappear, becoming nearly weightless, leaving a five-ton pyramid stone weighing as little as 1000 pounds. This is basically the secret of the pyramids and other seemingly impossible feats such as Stonehedge and Machu Picchu and other places where multi-ton rocks were hauled in from further away. This magic became ho hum after the invention of the wheel and iron tools however, because people had more to occupy their minds. Eventually a dogmatic theocracy conquered and ruled over the peasants and magic became even more hidden.

         Rawagamau means to discard the rituals of the past that we no longer need, such as sacrificing animals, no offense to Santevarians.  Lamagamau means discarding cultural practices we should leave behind as we move into a more peaceful future. Use your senses to find truths that work for you and remember about freedom of expression. No matter how much of a failure you seem to be in this rat race, you very likely have at least three intuitive talents which could be exhibited if we lived in a more open-minded society. I’ll admit, I failed at Capitalism, but I used my brain to research and my body to survive the low pay of those who work with the earth. I stopped and smelled the roses much too much some would say. Intelligence is the result of skepticism and pagan ritual is not demonic and respectful ceremony needs to be respected.                                     

         But it’s 2021: we are more modern even still, but might you have a knack for magic? Before there was even blood sacrifice, there was a lot of ordinary people throughout history, like 90% of us, that were more about culture than religion. Dancing and drumming were great fun and why worship an invisible deity some priest or shaman insisted that they existed? In time, these folk beliefs, the folk magic had to be hidden from the Big Brother Of christianity who falsely accused any heretic as being demon possessed. Not one demon has been caught and that’s why most of us think fundamentalists are fundamentally mistaken.

         The ancient pagans had an unlimited view of magic and freedom of thought and there were thousands of different ceremonies. One that I have discovered is to be in tune with the birds in the morning as a way of sending a message to the Goddess, Muse or Spirit Guide via the singing of the birds early in the morning.  Pagans today think smoke is the best way to send a message to the god or goddess, but what about the scenario of the druid in the ancient forest 15oo years ago, on the lam from the Popes assassins. Smoke could give him or the Druidesses location away.

           The pontificating pustillades wanted nothing less than pagan extinction. They came close. All because they feared magic.

.

                  How do I start, start with rocks …uh..stones they are then. I put a collection of rocks and stones and lucky objects on my dashboard about three weeks ago and it seeems my life went into dynamic mode. I mean right away, things good and bad started to happen. You need to be careful I realize, but stone magic seems to happen more readily than you might think.  Is there a right way to do it? From Scott Cunninghams Crystal Gem and Metal Magic, (   )”The earth is one tiny part of a vast energy network. Though once created by it, our planet now contains its own vibrations. Some of these powers, and their manifestations, are shaded and formed to benefit us. Stones are magical batteries that contain and concentrate earth’s energies.”                                                                       

Imagine then the energy produced by stone runes which contain magic from their sound, their shape, and hidden meaning. Here is a quote from the book Northern Magic  --- Rune Mysteries and Shamanism, to introduce you to runes if you have not met their acquaintance yet.                             (   )“Regardless  of whether you are a beginner in the field of esoteric studies or an advanced initiate, on some level you can easily understand the concept embedded in the originalll concept of the Runic, the runes. The Odian branch of the Northern Way is a tradition based on the concept encoded in this word. As such it is perhaps the system of magic best suited to a continually active or dynamic search or quest for an eternally elusive goal.  The power of the rune lies in its ability to spur seekers onward. Because no end is thirsted for, the seeker on the Northern Path measures success in progress made. Success is gauged by the ground you cover, not the goals met. At this level the rune is a universal principle, more or less comprehensible in all systems of magic or religion.

Within the magical runic traditions there are many avenues and roadways by which to approach these universal mysteries. The rune is not simply a letter or character in an alphabet-it is that and much more. Every rune is made up of three elements or aspects:

A sound (song)

A stave (shape)

A rune (hidden lore)

No one part of the triad can totally stand alone-each implies and projects the other. The sound or phonetic value of the rune is its vibrational quality in the air, in space. The visible staves are only reflections of the actual runes, which remains forever hidden from our 5 senses. Each rune is in and of itself infinite and without bounds. In practical terms the rune is the sum total of of lore and information on the stave and sound, the song is the vibration, the stave is the image, and the rune is the lore needed to activate the magic.”(   ) Truth to tell I bought some nice runes, the elder futhark, 24 stones and a blank. The Younger 16 stave futhark apparantly captured the energy of the elder futhark so it is authentic to use either one.

In Tarot for Pagans I described my discovery of the Tarot and the Celtic Cross spread. This can also be done with runes. 10 positions to be used the same way but instead of interpreting symbols on the cards you analyze the rune. I have a long way to go with this and the Teacher will show up when I’m ready. For now go back to Chapter 14 and look at the diagram to remind you how they are set up.

What then of the people most known for their stonework; the architects of Chartres Cathedral and most other ancient structures made of stone? Free men masons became the freemasons and ritual was added as time went by and tweaked by the idle rich with nothing better to do. That’s my Cliff Notes version of the Masons. The original stone masons were free men unlike the peasants and serfs and slaves and indentured servants. The name mason may have been referring to the quarrys which were called freestone quarries. The original masons travelled from area to area, project to project, building things and built lodges that these freemen masons would stay at. Masonry is traced back 3500 years and maybe the passing on of esoteric knowledge began further back than that. Regarding the Masons and Illuminati, I find that the Illuminati were an evil sort of organization that used the Masons as a protective societal shield and Masons have become scapegoats for the Illuminats nefarious deeds.

The reason I got reinterested in the masons is their mysterious intertwining throughout historical events. At the time I had also become obsessed with brick and tile projects and taught myself with an uncommon determination. The tile and brickwork I had done looked paganesque and created a nice atmosphere. I also used bricks, many recycled, to make a brick patio and felt some sort of vibe going on. Masons are all inclusive with their knowledge using the best of everything mixed with their rituals and I felt that I was discovering something.

I called on the god of the masons, whoever was their ancient inspiration, and I had a pile of 50 cut corners of bricks, basically triangles, all about the same size that were laying around in a pile.  I asked the mason god to give me a symbol; what was your ancient symbol? Masons have rituals for the Goddess but I felt a male influence this time. I began pulling triangle shaped bricks out of the pile and I began working a shape and then I worked with my inspiration. This goes here, this one here, this one turned this way or that way.  This is what I think magic is; normally I’m a plodding, slow off the mark type of person but this brick arranging was what I consider magical, intuitive and spontaneous. I can’t summon it because I never know when an inspiration will occur, and this is a fundamental truth about my religion. It’s better not to force or beg for magic but ride with it when it happens, like catching a perfect wave.                                                           

No offense to ceremonial pagans but did you notice I didn’t use coriander dusted on the eyelids of an owl or some other ritual? I’m telling you, what most pagans do today are what the priests and priestesses did a long time ago and for many of us magic seems more complicated than is necessary. I understand that emotion and feeling are important and it’s why women are naturally good at magic. But every once in a while, I really get in the zone and these magical things truly happen. What are the actual aspects of the folk religion; what the other 90% of us did, nurturing the intuitive goddess or god? The simple folk magic has to happen on it’s own and please take no offense with my comments because I completely appreciate what is done by ritual: it’s just not my cup of tea…...yet.                                           customer trees 010

                                Rocket ship from  alien ancestors?

                                        Secret symbol sent by mason god?

                                        

22 triangles was   the inspiration, I was almost possessed and felt guided while I placed them but as I stepped back to look at it what I did,…. what could it be? It looked like a fish but not really. Was it an upside down cross like the symbol for Thors hammer or Peters Cross? Where none of the bricks touched seemed to remind me of north south east and west within this symbol. My logical self told me something was not finished; I hope I don’t wreck the inspiration. I spotted a triangle from a brick that was cut different than the others and cut the larger way and I placed it at the bottom. I like the idea of using the mysterious number 23 whenever possible and the 23rd brick was the capping brick to capture energy from the primary wind of the season.  The symbol can point north during the winter here in zone 9 and south during the summer. The large capping triangle on the end enables me to symbolically hold the wind energy. On October 31st we point the symbol north signifying the Return of Boreas, the god of the cold north wind, and on April 30 we point it south acknowledgeing the return of Dexsiua who brings the warm currents of the life giving southern wind.                                                                                              

                  By the way this turning of the symbol is what a simple Druddite ceremony is like. Really, it’s not drama class ya know; simply turn the 23 bricks to face the other direction. Something that is done twice a year and barely an effort because I like to keep it simple. You can be a pagan and purposefully keep it simple, don’t ever forget that ancient hand gesture and here is where I even make pagans mad. Traditionalists are keeping a lot of good people away from paganism and therefore I’m starting a non-costume, optional ceremony, pagan religion. Illustrating that this is what the solitaries do; whatever we want and certainly not to copy my structures for a self-generated religion, but a guide to create your own, like fingerprints no one has the same belief.

 

  The Christians have always disliked the Masons who were very clever in disguising their organization. Christianity is a straight jacket for the mentally limber and Masons have always provided an outlet for thinking people. What about today, come on out masons, christians aren’t going to jail you or steal your property anymore. Come on out of the apron closet, eh?  Masons believe in generosity and one fine example of a Mason doing good deeds is Danny Thomas; he put a lot of effort into the St. Judes Hospital, helping children in many generous ways. Harry Truman was also a Mason, and he was a hell of a guy.                        

 Phyllis Orcutt just seems to explain things so well in The Book of Shadows. Here she discusses the Masons. (52)”The Masons arose from a magical and intellectual lineage and it was their revolutionary brotherhood that founded the United States. They believed in the brotherhood of man, the existence of a divinity, and the immortality of the soul. Many of the treasured secret rituals of the masons reflected those of the Goddesses at Ileuses and Delphi, and the most overt symbols decorate our flag, dollar bills, and seals of high office. Often these days as right wing politicians and conservative Christians appropriate history for their own exclusionary political ends, they assert that we were founded as a Christian country. In fact we were founded by magicians as an astounding political experiment, reflecting their equally insurgent and ancient spirituality.”(52)

Really, our revolutionary ancestors were magicians? The actual greatest generation (of 1776) may have been. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Paine were gifted individuals who studied a lot of esoteric philosophies and no true biography of them shows them as Ned Flanders foam at the mouth Christian types. There is example after example of George Washington snubbing Christianity and now we hear that Abe Lincoln loved the Bible for guidance but was careful not to endorse Christianity.                 

  For those just beginning to explore paganism with my book, I want to show you a ritual… a spell…. I don’t even know what to call it. My teacher in the 80’s, Mike Two Hawks, was quite willing to show me how to do a ceremony with tobacco and facing the four directions. You can do a ceremony with the 4 directions or the 4 winds. I have the north/south symbol (boreasicator) with the 23 triangles that I turn twice a year to keep my ceremony real simple. In the religion I made up, we have the north wind, Boreas, a symbol of strength symbolized in the hammer. The east direction symbolizes wisdom in our choices in life and my ancient mother Zemyna fills this role. The south wind is the warm life-giving wind, symbolized by the springtime and summer and is represented by the goddess Dexsiua.  The west wind here in east central Florida is infrequent and accompanies extreme weather systems and I call upon Zephyr when I face west, those rare times when I do ceremony.

 I didn’t realize I was so dependent on Scott Cunningham but here I am quoting him again in Earth Power, showing an example of a ritual you can make up if you want to be a ceremonial pagan. Mostly the God or Goddess just wants sincerity and respect but here goes. (     )WINDS OF THE NORTH      RUSHING AND MIGHTY          AID ME IN MY MAGICAL WORK

WINDS OF THE EAST (face these directions when you do this)   DAZZLING AND BRIGHT…  AID ME IN MY MAGICAL WORK          WINDS OF THE WEST       GENTLE AND BUOYANT…”   HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, GENTLE AND BUOYANT? Not where I live, here’s a lesson for beginners----do not take any book completely at its face value and some say especially Scott Cunningham because of the excess of ceremonies. No offense of course because he is eminently quotable for important pagan talking points.                                        You must work with yourself to make it into a system that works for you. Anytime I’ve ever done a ceremony I completely make up the words because it’s so rare I do it and I only do it when truly inspired. For instance, I took a 1500 mile pagan pilgrimage to Salem Massachusetts in an older car and as I reflected on safety and the journey back, I found myself in a gazebo on the town green in Salem. With ancient kernels of corn and sodalite pebbles, and bits of nature I found locally along with other offerings I had in a little bottle, I faced each direction starting with north and prayed for safety and protection on the trip back to Florida and gave an offering in each direction. Instead of saying gentle and buoyant I would have changed it to ‘winds of the west…… raucous and diverse, aid me in the protection spell I seek.

All right, what happens if you conjure up some demons? I want to refer you to The Philosophy of Magic for one of the cures from ancient times. (     ) “..Another gesture is the extended middle finger, termed ‘the bird’ in American slang and it is a sign of disrespect or hostility.  It was used in magic ritual in order to subdue demons. One other gesture which has been retained and which has an esoteric aspect is the most common of signs: the index finger touching the thumb, forming a circle, the three fingers, slightly bent, and extending outwards. Generally acknowledged as meaning that everything is all right, in esoteric terms it signifies the three pillars, or trinity of alchemical principles-Mercury Sulphur and Salt.”

Can one conjure up Dragons? Philosophy of Magic makes sense of dragons in this quote,” In China it is believed that there are currents in the topography known as feng shui. There it is that dragons fly over the land in the spring, carrying with them the beneficent currents of spring –growth, green and warmth which follow the natural flow of the land, flying on specific, well charted dragon lines. The magus simply aids the dragon’s flight. In an ancient text it is said that as a fish cannot see the water and man cannot see the air, dragons cannot see the earth in which they exist.” Update: I finally met Lynx, the green dragon.

      Christian pulpits of hate need to stop inciting parishioners to hate and fear paganism in any form with their imaginary demon nonsense. I believe I may have experienced dragon energy but I am not going to kill people who don’t believe like me. My message to evangelists is to be Americans first you pricks, and tell everyone to treat others with respect, and stop harassing those who are different including Pagans and especially witches who are the oposite of what they are portrayed as. The christians, and even worse, the islamics ( call them chritislamicity) both want some exclusionary Theocracy and Pagan Awareness will always challenge their long term goal.                              I know I can’t do pagan things locally here in Ivegotmine Florida where I live. The land of the double dipper, our largest demographic are 60—75 year old crabby women who would happily plow you down with their SUV to look at the scowl on their faces. So many people here use christianity to give a sometimes false vaneer of decency. A general rising tide of enlightenment will eventually drown the meanness, prejudice and hate of the greatest generation. Grind it into the fetid mud of  the bigoted and hateful authoritarian Despots that they bow down to. Maybe even the truth of Jesus will be revealed soon. For instance, Masons claim he was a member of the Eygptian Lodge.

         Scott Cunningham one last time in Earth Power, (   )”Magic is deceptively simple and incredibly easy. Planting a stone, holding a leaf, or drawing a picture, in and of themselves, do nothing. It is when such actions are performed in an emotionally charged state that changes are wrought and true magic is truly done. To perform effective magic three necessities must be present: the need, the emotion and the knowledge.” To all you Christians and Islamics out there hatin’ what I’m writin’ I’ll leave you with this, from Arthur Versluis and the Philosopy Of Magic (    ) our pagan religion is not the evil you have portayed in the past thousand plus years. At the heart of ritual lies the feminine component, the kindness, intuitive empathy” Yes you bastards, this is something the warrior elite have destroyed in themselves and their institutions…compassion. POM “The realization of Mind is none other than the ultimate compassion And that is the seed, the emerald stone at the very heart of magic, it’s greatest secret and source of strength. Magic is, in the deepest sense, compassion.”(    )                              

          1-2-9       HolyStoneThunderStone              

    I’m happy to walk outside to look at the full moon or praise the north wind or pray to the Corn Mother for a successful crop. To do a true history, however, I need to lead us through what all these other pagans are doing and what aspects of magic are needed for the future.  Explain the Holy Stone and Thunder Stone, and the significance of Stonehenge. How is it the New Agers are so into rocks,,,,,,huh?...oh stones, they’re not rocks I’m told.

          Back in the seventies, the Book of the Month book club offered a lot of occult books that I purchased and what I learned is that you don’t mess with these things unless you’re ready.  Mysterious and unexplainable at the time, I let it go. Therefore, I think people who ‘speak in tongues’ are irresponsibly allowing all sorts of creatures and negative emanations to come to our plane and run loose.  “All I really did was unlock the forbidden.” (ICP) Bear whatever false witness you want about pagans, but it’s you people that are possessed by demons.                                                                   

          This topic contains the greatest curiosity factor so let’s explore this together. Rituals and spells, magick and traps. You put power, energy and wishes into an object with positive results. Today, some pagans think they are Druids, Priests and Priestesses and my point is that in every culture there was the shaman or priestly class and the rest of us who would prefer less ceremony. As we begin our journey into ritual and magic, I first have to question these books that explain about magic and its practitioners.  Are they capturing the essence of what 90% of us throughout history did: The Folk Magic. Not everybody can be a Priest, Druid or Clergy.

 

The witches have a strong form of rituality and it works exactly right for them. To be a pagan you really can do what you want, don’t let any book tell you there are absolutes. An elephant can be your goddess and you can collect elephant icons all day long as a focus for your spirituality, that would be cool, you’d still be a Pagan. As you read different books you will see there is something called the Athame. This is your ritual knife; I’ll explain how it’s used a little later.  Books and practicioners say it’s like a mechanic without a wrench, a dentist without a drill, you absolutelty must have an athame.                                                                         

Frankly I don’t even want any indoor ceremonies, except during solstice. I might have a shrine with rocks and candles, ooops sorry, stones and candles. But I am a gardener, I have a few knives around, like 15, and they have many uses. Cut open our modern impenetrable packaging, slice fruit, cut string and tape, tighten glasses, cut open bags of mulch, carve pinewood derby cars and on and on.  Do I really need an athame, a double=sided knife? One side sharp the other dull?  I have a knife that is very sharp and has a compass in the handle. Nice for outdoor ceremonies, but my favorite use for it is to cut seed potatos. That is going to be my athame, my favorite potato knife, does anyone have a problem with that?  I keep it clean for cutting fruit such as starfruit or oranges for soccer games.

      Here you are looking at Paganism beginning to understand that you’ve been a pagan all along. Subtle and unceremonious but a pagan just the same.   Then you meet some people who are pagans and you find a snobbery that is unsettling. Neophytes may hear, “Your athame has to be….blah blah…”  or “Oh….you’re just starting, you don’t really know anything”, like some newbie or something. They will tell you that you’re not a real pagan if you mix and match your dieties and beliefs either. If you have a simpler earth loving set of beliefs and  aren’t all obsessed with what color candle you use for  what  spell your trying to work this is somehow seen as less than pagan in many circles.                             

I’m telling you, don’t kowtow to traditional, stay independent all you solitaries because we are creating tradition now, tradition that may very likely outlast the traditional of today which is after all only 60 years old officially. Tradition today is dependent on ceremonies and a schism is developing where we know this ceremonial excess is keeping a large number of people from becoming pagans. The simple folk religion doesn’t want associations with magic so much as a strong desire to be intertwined with natures rhythms. Neo-pagan tradition is an oxymoron correct? We’ve been learning all our lives and it’s like the kid who doesn’t learn to play baseball till he’s 13 and then goes on to be the best player on the high school team, you can easily pass these benighted bombastics standing on your head. Like me, maybe you’ve been basically living like a pagan all your life but never knew it and have no real need to raise energy so in that case you’re not a newbie after all. Let the magic happen when it happens, I believe this is the basis of the ancient folk religion I seek. The Celts, the Catholics, fans of Scott Cunningham, some of these magicians all trying to connect with these forces. I frankly have little use for ceremony.                                                                                                          

 Something that I enjoy is something I call my bird ceremony and my Boreasicator. The Boreasicator is a symbol I was inspired to create that is comprised of 23 triangles with the open end pointed to the wind direction that dominates the season. Boreas, the north wind, rules from Oct 31 to Apr 30 and the south wind,Dexsiua, dominates from May 1 to Oct 30 here in Zone 9 Florida. The bird ceremony is one of the few ceremonies I do and it goes like this: before sunrise all the birds gather together to sing about their adventures that night. One particular morning, birds started making a lot of different calls and I closed my eyes. I can’t meditate and I choose not to because it’s boring, but the bird calls allow me to tune out everything else and to send my primary thought up to one of the goddesses. The more you concentrate, the furthur you can hear these bird calls, the singing trees. Let the bird songs lift your spirit and send your hopes prayers and wishes out to the universe: kind of a smoke free 21st century ritual. Will Pagans pooh-pooh this idea? “You have to have smoke to communicate with the gods.” Really? When Druids were hiding out in the ancient forests of Europe at the beginning of the Christian Holy Rampage of Conquest, did they draw attention to themselves with fires, perhaps not. Like I’m saying, don’t kowtow to traditional.                                                                       

This morning I had a distinct feeling of thanks, I have been fortunate to weather the first part of the financial collapse of predatory capitalism. From being nearly in foreclosure we are now in much better shape and are definitly bucking the   trend and me and Jane are very thankful. I had prayed to Mother Mary often, first a prayer for others and then a sincere plea for my struggle and I really needed a break, year after year of barely making it financially, 35 years of living paycheck to paycheck. See Roses and the Cult of Mary chapter 7c.  So I do believe there is magic and the more in tune with it I get, the easier it happens. But I approach it in the way that you can’t summon it or call upon it. We know the phrase ‘getting in the zone’, and this is what happens.           

 I need to quote from some interesting sources to give us all a bit of an education. Here is Earth Power by Scott Cunningham, his books are highly regarded by 21st century ceremonial pagans. (77)”Magic was the first religion, and that if you lovingly utilize the forces of nature to cause beneficial change, you also become one with them. It is these powers that have been personified as Gods and goddesses. Attuning with them is a spiritual experience and is the basis of all true religion.”(77) I discuss symbols and how we are developing a universal language of symbols that everyone in the world can understand. Whether it is symbols on packages of things we buy or emojis we send with our comments. Here is Scott Cunningham again, (77)”Symbolism-the language of magic and the subconsciencous mind-is a sort of magical shorthand.” And also, “Natural Magic is direct and to the point. Despite what you may have heard, magic is nothing supernatural, unnatural or even alien. It is in our backyards, our homes,; in the very essence of our beings. The forces of nature empower magic, not demons and imps, “Satan” or fallen angels.”

      In Papal Magic by Simon : he says that Catholic priests have been practicing magic all along. Here’s from the grimoire of a pope. A grimoire is a magicians guide to spells and things. It says ” To prevent a dog from biting and barking. Say three times, (looking at the dog) barbaric arch, the heart splits, the tail hangs, the key of St Peter becomes your maw until tomorrow.”  Okay, this is from the Grimoire of Pope Honorius and there are many serious ones in the Popes grimoire and many frivolous ones, but there is demon fighting in many. So, are there demons or not?

      The book, Philosophy of Magic has this to say regarding demons, (72) “The primordial magician, through ritual, illumines the nature of the demons and lays them to rest, while most people make pacts with the demons by not invoking them and laying them to rest. For the demons are the projections, the manifestations of ego and habit energy which the magus must mercilessly expel in order that the angelic intelligences may take their rightful place as the manifestation of Mind. The unity of man and the angelic intelligences are mirrored by the unity of man and the constellations.”(72)

      I have this belief that our earth mother, Gaia, Mother Nature or Zemyna in my case, is a real force, and she came here from the constellation of Ursa Major. She travelled from a habitable planet where the soul bearing life were the mermaids and mermen, because the planet was virtually all water.  She came from that planet, after being an apprentice of sorts, then came here to Earth and directed life on our planet. The question is this, when I look at a constellation like Pleides are all those stars (suns) an equal distance away? How about Ursa Major?    Our idea of a constellation is that they are somehow related to each other but one star may be 15 light years away and another might be 40 light years away. So how does this cosmology affect us and the conjunctions with the planets and all? I get Astronomy but not Astrology; not so much. I know you New Agers are pulling your hair out by now, it must be a heresy to think constellations are arbitrary and inexact from the git-go. I mean, really, what is the connection between stars that are 35 light years apart? I see a constellation that looks like a sweater, and there’s another that looks a platypus.

      (72)The most central constellation, though, is the Polar constellation, the Great Bear, Ursa Major. For just as all magic ritual oriented towards that which never changes, but only revolves-the Pole of Existence- so is the ritual oriented toward the outward sign of that pole: Ursa Major which never sets only circles Polaris, signifies the wheel of existence, as well as the circle which lies beyond time. A mandala created by time lapse photography of Ursa Magor creates an extraordinary whorl around the Pole while the four stars arranged in a square signify the four directions.”(72)  I do believe that our grandmother planet is there, somewhere, in Ursa Major that never sets. We are always able to see where we came from although few see where we are going.

      So what is out there anyways? I enjoy reading articles on Witchvox and most writers are practical and sensible but there are those that claim to visit beings in the astral realm, and they see fairies and wood sprites and all those other really hard to see creatures. That’s magic to me, If I saw a leprecaun I don’t think I could ever really be the same and if I saw one with a bowl of cereal I would drive straight to a hospital for evaluation. Am I not a good pagan having thoughts like this? The visions and insights I do get are “in my minds eye.” Distinct images but not physical beings, intuitive feelings when I’m in the zone. Who have the wizards and shamans been summoning, what is the actual power behind the throne so to speak? When we pull back the curtain are we certain to say humbug or will we be truly amazed. My theory is that Zemyna (Gaia) will reveal herself in some way on 21-12-21 and most religions will never be the same.

All these demons are not what they seem. Recently Oprah was so impressed with a book she created a ten week study series to acquaint people with the ideas. I found it as an interestingly charged insight into my studying of Pagan religions. The book is by Eckhart Tolle and is called, “A New Earth”. I came away with his descriptions of ‘pain-bodies’ as what I feel are the “demons” that a lot of people claim to have seen. Here goes, “the pain body is a semiautonomous energy form that lives within most human beings, an entity made up of emotion. It has it’s own primitive intelligence, not unlike a cunning animal, and it’s intelligence  is directed primarily at survival. Like all life forms it needs to feed-to take in new energy- and the food it requires to replenish itself consists of energy that is compatible with its own energy that vibrates as a similar frequency. Any emotionally painful experience can be used as food by the pain body. That’s why it thrives on negative thinking as well as drama in relationships. The pain body is an addiction to unhappiness and to make others just as miserable in order to feed on their negative emotional reactions. The pain body attempts to provoke, ‘push their buttons’ so it can feed on the ensuing drama. Pain bodies love intimate relationships and families because that is where they get most of their food.”                                 

What to do then with such a variety of thought and belief? If you’re a seeker like me who is not about to pull into a port for too long, you wonder how could all these people possibly be right? Obviously they can’t so all you need is your independent strength to follow the trail that you blaze. “…if there was a better way to go then it would find me, I can’t help that the road  just rolls out behind me.” Fiona Apple

      I can see where todays pagans would turn off new people with the “I’m a better pagan than you” snobbery along with the Goofiness factor.   Fact is that Pagans are all finding their way and many of us blue collar types will sprint right past these head trip, priest type costume fetishists. A newbie could have superlative insights that experienced pagans have lost as they “spent the whole weekend looking for coltsfoot root” driving 200 miles in their Lincoln Escalade. I’d rather imagine shrub and tree roots all spreading out and touching for miles and miles and not be a slave to spells, rituals and an excess of ceremonies because usually, there is a head trip dude dominating the gathering; a bombastic snob standing between you and Mother Nature.   People with more personality than brains.                                                            

Look, long time veteran pagans are wary of newbies or phonies and I don’t blame them. Some pagans have been doing this quite a long time, 1948 to 1970 was a seminal period and the first wave of neo paganism occurred. 1970 to 1992 was the second wave; people strolling their way down many paths to find paganism and finally the third wave where a general resurgence of Paganism is occuring and by 2022 logical thinking people will accept Pagans as any other American with rights that need to be protected, the right to not fear harrassment when you wear a pentacle or a Hammer of Thor. Crosses and fish are everywhere in Moral High Grounmd Hypocrisy Land, but suspicion of evil accompanies a lot of Pagan Expression.  There is a civil rights commision that Pagans may need to use in the near future to achieve the equality we deserve. Maybe a class action lawsuit against Christians and all the stolen property and the burial and destruction of Sacred sites. Chartres Cathedral in France very likely was a pagan sacred site in it’s original form. Usurping the magic from these sites I’m a stron g advocate of seeing the history of these sites in the banned Vatican Library.

  Here’s another quick issue, I feel that Satanists and hollywood have ruined the pentacle as a symbol, let’s face it, it mostly breeds misunderstanding. We shouldn’t waste too much media time with trying to restore its rightful place for now. Especially with men, the hammer of Thor is a better symbol because the hammer is symbolic of our efforts to break down misperceptions and ignorance. Then try to explain the sign of the hammer to a Christian and you’ve got the blasphemy issue rearing it’s ugly head. There will be no end to the waves of morons, pagan fighting zombies, and I hope the populace will help us somehow.   

1-2-10   

Druids, Vikings and Darwin                                                          The Druids left no written records that we know of. As one of the first competitors with Christianity in social circles and government, they were hunted down and murdered as the equality of early Christianity was supplanted by women and pagan hating pinheads. By 400 A.D. the Druids were no longer a dominant presence. By then, Christianity was no longer driven by the kindness of Jesus; it was usurped by patriarchal power mongers who used the rotting corpse of the Roman Empire as their base of power, even adopting the Roman language, Latin.

     Historians disagree whether Druids actually used human sacrifice as one of their rituals and as I read obscure historical accounts, it seems that they were using criminals and not random victims for these alleged sacrifices. History is written by the winners of war and Machiavellian intrigue and very likely this lie about human sacrifice was meant to keep the Druids from ever regaining their voice. These same lying “Chritians” encouraged the enslavement of Africans and massacre of our Native Americans who were seen as savages.               

           Native Americans were seen as far too pagan to be managed or assimilated and being extremely earth centered they could never really be Christians. As long as the Black slaves converted to Christianity, (Yemaya and Voodoo went underground or mixed with Christianity in some cases) and the Red Genocide converted the Native Americans, things would be fine and dandy. Today, America needs to allow Pagan Expression to be free to flourish as guaranteed by the American Constitution and make up for this brainwashing and the subsequent massacres or enslavement of the earth loving, Goddess venerating  Pagans. Protesting The DaVinci Code, trying to eliminate Halloween, Banned in Boston, and enthusiastic support of usury in lending….. Onward Christian soldiers.  Unseen by most is that the dark side of American Liberty was the faith based genocide.  The pioneers generally mingled with the natives and the Indians were welcoming. From Thomas Morton (see Pagan Heroes) in 1624 who was known as the Pagan Pilgrim to Hindus from India today, alternatives to Christianity are actively discouraged. Christianity has prevented the United States from the full blossoming of the Constitution with the true equality and freedom of religion it would provide.                                

            The Vikings were also one of histories losers. They were about exploring and bonding with their land and having a respect for women similar to the Celts and many other pagan societies that is not commonly found in religions such as Islam and post-Constantine Christianity. Recent research is showing the Vikings, the Norse people had a lot to do with the land and weren’t all out pillaging. The founding of ancient Russia was credited to a Viking, and they put the hardiness in the spirit of the Irish. Viking journeys led them across Europe and nearly to Iraq, even becoming royal guards for a Moslem nation. These spirited people were converted to Christianity in many un-Christian ways. In the Faeroes Islands of the North Sea, a converted Viking gave the leader of those islands a choice as they stood on a cliff by the ocean in 999 A.D. Live as a Christian or die as a Viking. A dagger in his throat and an imminent icy death helped with his choice.                                   

Onward Christian soldiers, they are still trying to divert and divide us when the future strength of the United States is in our desire for liberty and the diversity of our ideas and our acceptance of each other. Not everyone believes the same thing. Thank Goodness that Barack Obama is defining America to the world and we will gain their respect back when he declared to the Turks that “We are not a Christian nation, but a nation of diversity.”                            

The Christian knights called the Templars were charged with keeping Jerusalem within the Christian sphere during the Crusades. Many of you may know the history of the crusades but suppressed was the fact that the Templars lived amongst Moslems and were renegades in a sense because they attempted to join the two religions and their reward for this peacemaking was another epic slaughter directed by Rome. The Templars were rounded up and killed, all of them! Wink wink nod nod. Like the Druids, they were no strangers to travel and knew better to hide out in the Ancient Forests after escaping. Some say the Templars are the source of some of the secret societies as their exemplary fortitude was not destroyed. They await the day to rise again.                                                                                                                              

           Do I even need to discuss the Spanish Inquisition? I’m sure Thomas Jefferson had it at the forefront of his thoughts as he debated the separation of church and state with other people. The Horror of the Spanish Inquisition was still fresh in his 18th century mind. Then there were the Bankers who fueled the swift western expansion of our country, underwriting the ecological devastation and native genocide. They were thwarted temporarily by Andrew Jackson, Mr. 20 dollar bill to those unschooled by history. He was President 1828 to 1836 and he denounced bankers, calling them “a pit of vipers” and paid off all American debts. It wasn’t until Abe Lincoln needed funding to free the slaves did the bankers return. Coincidentally at this time American coins began sporting In God We Trust. In 2009 every man, woman and child in this country now owes 75,000 dollars to the national debt. “One day old and I’m livin’ on credit.” (5) God will provide, I guess.

          The resurgence of Paganism and Womens Equality could neutralize Islamic extremists. Our new secret weapon

            Pope John Paul the Second showed us what forgiveness was when he forgave Ali Ajca who attempted to assassinate him. John Paul had the modern sensibilities of people living with freedom without giving a nod to the excess of sex and violence in the world of entertainment. He also reached out to many Pagan groups and visited them and prayed with them in his expansion of seeking truths. Forgiveness after 9/11 could have prevented the killing of a hundred thousand since then. It’s said 3,000 Iraqis die every month because of this idiotic war. They are not our enemy; their leaders are fools as ours.                 

             The Moslem people  are our brothers and sisters but we are absorbed by the feuds of monotheistic religions and I pray we learn to rise above these patriarchal religious warrior elites like they don’t even matter and we embrace our common humanity. The cumulative result of their wars has been a continued destruction of pagan communities caught in the middle. Imagine Wiccans and Native Americans at war? Pagan groups would not be like this and this is an important point I’m trying to make. Paganism would bring peace to the world. True freedom of religion is needed and so much of Pagan Expression is about respect; each other, animals or the “Mother we all walk upon” John Trudell. The resurgence of Paganism and womens equality in Islamic led countries could neutralize Jihad unlike our trillion dollar military that has largely been ineffective.

               Science is also in dire need of the light of day. Egyptologists will tell you with a straight face that 5 ton blocks of stone were perfectly shaped with iron balls attached to sticks, then carried many miles to be perfectly placed in a pyramid by people who were barely figuring out how to turn wheat into bread. Science tells us this or that happened at certain periods of time, but rebels say some of these pyramids are much older than previously thought and more evidence is emerging despite orthodox scientific dogma. For instance, the Sphinx shows signs of being weathered by rain and yet in North Africa there has not been a rainy climate for at least 8,000 years so if you are a scientist and go against conventional beliefs of any sort, such as saying the Pyramids and Stonehenge may be 10,000 years old or more: you are banned, fired, harassed, ridiculed and thwarted from publishing. In some ways science is even more repressive than religion as the emerging evidence of peaceful goddess societies in “Pre-history” is becoming more difficult to hide.                                    

              On a more serious note, imagine a geologic disaster such as the Greenland ice sheet slipping into the ocean resulting in 500 foot Tsunamis and a 15 foot ocean rise. This is just one of thousands of normal geologic cyclical disasters that could happen. Darwin was wrong, it is not survival of the fittest, it’s always been the survival of the luckiest. In Darwin’s book, “The Origin of Species”, he mentions that there are great gaps in the evolutionary parade and if they are not found in the future then some of his theories would need to be updated. Links between fish and walking terrestrial creatures are being found in Greenland recently, “BUT that’s It!”   Most evolutionary links have not been found and you really need to question the “truths” of Evolutionary conventional wisdom. I think Darwin would give pause to “intelligent design” if he were alive today,  and would wonder why certain things still don’t add up. For instance up till a certain point in time; there were not any flowering plants. Flowers lead to seeds and fruit, flowers and pollinating insects, flowers and bees—get the picture? Fruit needs pollination and flowers are crucial to the diversity of life on this planet. Scientists cannot clearly find the links between non-flowering and flowering plants and it disconcerting to them.                                                                                

            Flowers are crucial to diversity of life, and my religion solves this mystery by stating that the Ancient Mother created the flowering plants; SAVING MILLIONS OF YEARS OF EVOLUTION. Please don’t let Christians get away with their claim to the Intelligent Design concept, because the Ancient Mother is the Mastermind behind it all … not the grumpy christian god or the judgemental Islamic god.  Darwin was a genius at observing, and if we brought him to our present day he’d spend a couple weeks studying and would announce in our modern times.” I can see some sort of intelligent design occurred on this planet. There was no POOF!! Abracadabra, Youuuuu are now a planet. But some sort of gentle nudge from the uh….. Unseen Source.”

 


1-2-11 TAROT IN THE PARK  

    “Churches serve quasi-governmental functions, as do the Cub Scouts, the Rotary, Homeowners associations and Garden Clubs. Government should be our solid edge and vigilant protector of our rights. These civic and religious groups should contribute to a high thread count in the fabric of freedom.”

                      This is a fictional account of a Pagan confronting members of the Abrahamic religions and letting them know that Paganism is the embodiment of American Constitutional Freedoms. It's  THEIR ideas that are kind of…..ODD…and….. ..foreign.

             I would say the concept of going to hell for an eternity has been repudiated by most thinking people in the last few decades. As a pagan, there are no angry, patriarchal Gods ready to baste us with His special angry sauce before he sends us into the eternal fire.  This notion still begs the question that, if they are right, then how long is an eternity anyways? How many years?

             It used to be believed that an eternity was 363,000 years or 3 eons of 121,000 years each. Modern researchers are more inclined to think an eon is 85,000 years and an eternity is 425,000 years or 5 eons; either way, that's a long time to burn in hell, eh? When we are warned from the pulpit that those who don't believe in God or Allah will burn in Hell, we laugh,  yet many believe but it seems like coercion and psychological manipulation. Many are being brainwashed by the Satanbox we call television. Workers citizens voters unite.

So here I am the other day at the local park and I'm working a Celtic cross spread with my Tarot cards, and a Christian woman walks by and holds her two index fingers into a cross as if she were performing an exorcism. An Islamic dude came along and lifted his skirt thing and ran away, and then a Jewish rabbi stopped his walk and looked up into the sky as if God were right above him to hear his beseeching and said,  "God, why must you allow the Pagans to be so brazen?"
               I stood up, gathered my cards and began walking towards the Jewish fellow and I asked "Dude, what country do we live in?'
             "United States of course." The Rabbi began walking faster because he believes Pagans are demon possessed, but I kept up with him and persisted we talk. We eventually came across the Islamic guy who had tripped over his robe thingy. Then I hollered ahead to the Christian woman, "Hey! He's hurt why did you walk right past him?"
               She came back sheepishly and I asked the three of them.    "Okay we all agree this is the United States, correct?" They nodded. "With my spirituality, I believe that I have freedoms that you don't have with your structured dogma."   They didn't agree and one of them blurted out, "we only have the freedoms God has given us."  

"No. Freedoms the Constitution and Bill of rights give us."

They commented that they were free American citizens and what was my point? I pulled out my Tarot deck, slapped it on my hand and said "Why do you have a problem with these?"
       "Divination is sorcery and evil" said the Christian bug eyed.
       "Evil dwells within my hands" Said the Dhervish with an arched eyebrow expression mark.
       "I can tell you are a lost soul and I will pray for you," declared the loud mouth Levite.
       "All right everybody" I said," history lesson: Thomas Jefferson believed in a god of nature. George Washington was a Mason and so was Paul Revere, and they were inclined to talk about Goddesses such as Liberty, Minerva, and Victory more often than they talked about the Bible.  The Bible seemed pedantic, dreary and boring in the growing light of the Enlightenment in the mid eighteenth century. So many words. Too many words.

Many American Revolutionary heroes were Unitarians and Atheists, along with the well-known Deists, and these independent thinkers did not allow religious bugaboo to cloud their clarity of thought.  Freedom of expression, personal liberty, social justice and the pursuit of happiness were the ideas that propelled our American Revolutionary Heroes, the actual greatest generation, to separate Church and State.  Following the American Revolution, the absolute power of the Divine Kings was put to rest, finally.

To me, this means my pagan religion is more in tune with our liberty seeking revolutionary ancestors, yet at the same time, many pagans are harassed or secretive about their nature loving beliefs because of social pressure from Baptist Fundies, not to mention the blood thirsty Jihadists." I said with a skank eye missive.     

Stand up Pagans because we need to teach these benighted blockheads that American Freedoms are actually more in tune with pagan expression, and not hysterical fundamentalism. Fundamental Hystericalism is not what the country was founded on, you're thinking of rational thought and Liberty.

 

1-2-12 Tarot For Newbs
http://www.witchvox.com/vn/vnpx/clear.gif
Author: Greenhammer 
Posted: August 26th. 2012 on Witchvox
  
The origin of the Tarot goes back thousands of years, and tarot may have even had its origins in Egyptian history, or maybe, even the cave painters; the mammoth hunters,  began drawing its earliest symbology. I have found a way to help people who are giving and getting tarot decks for our celebrations to explain how to get started. Some people collect decks like coins and are only interested in the artistic creativity and symbolic values. My purpose is to explain a way to help the curious learn to read tarot with a simple overview. Some of the stuffy traditionalists have way too many ‘shoulds’, so I am compelled to demonstrate a basic introduction so anyone can learn to do a Tarot reading. Move on to another chapter if Tarot isn't what you want to read about.

Like any of the mysterious arts, some practitioners try to foment exclusivity with it, by saying things like, “You know, not everybody should do it. I’m psychic and understand how to use it.   I’m fortunate to have a special gift,” they tell me. Well, don’t let anyone tell you can't use it because all you need is an interest;  I learned without knowing step 1 about it. It was a crash course at first, and I feel I can do a fundamental reading if I have my best book with me, the book that came with the cards. Of course, I understand that to be good at it will take years, and I hope to develop a more intuitive skill, but my desire to learn is Important to me.

During a pagan pilgrimage to Salem, Massachusetts, I was open to all things Pagan and Wiccan. Poking around one of the interesting shoppes, I saw a large variety of Tarot Decks, and the storeowners had sample packs to inspect. The Lord Of The Rings has always been a borderline obsession with me and I was really drawn to those 78 Lord Of The Ring Tarot Cards. I took them out of the box and looked at them eagerly. As I scanned the symbols and pictures, I was shaking my head, ‘Oh yeah, NOW I’m going to learn.’ 

Looking at them during my pilgrimage I was just as puzzled as ever. After getting back to Florida I even took the pack with me to work and took another look at the instruction book that went with it trying to figure it out. ‘I’ll read the books entire 260 pages cover to cover and somehow that will kick start the effort.’ There were a lot of pictures in a small book, so it wasn’t as daunting a task as you might think, and what I have discovered is a way for all of us to have access to this wisdom, knowledge and fun.

Part 1: The next day, as a way of starting, I took out the ten most interesting cards to me personally and looked up their meanings. If you’re new to the Tarot, you should try this yourself; go through your deck without any preconceived notions and pick out the ten cards that call out to you. I was a total Newb at this point, but determined. The LOTR book discusses the three-card throw, the Gandalf spread and other ways of interpretation but they didn’t feel right. 

The next day, I stopped off my favorite local nursery. I got what I needed and was leaving when some mysterious force pulled me into the statuary area. How about this here Celtic cross piece? The Celtic cross is some pagan remnant of the Celts, right? Well, I stared at it and said ‘That’s what I want!’ Imagine Homer Simpson saying, “Mmmmmmmm… statuary.” The rest of the day it rode in the back of my work van. I still had the ten cards I thought were the most interesting and was planning on reviewing them again and picked three as my favorites, indicator cards after a fashion.

That evening my driven, focused, semi obsessive determination to figure this out made me concentrate. I was ready to give up… but don’t you know the very best part was in the last couple of pages. Buddha Bing! There it was… the Celtic Cross spread! Thank the goddess. Celtic Cross Synchronicity! This is supposed to be the most common spread anyway, so I laid them out as directed. 

Tarot decks can be lame looking in my opinion, but this Lord of the Rings Deck is really well drawn and easy to relate to because only characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit are used. If you know the stories, then every card has some meaning for you. 

Part 2:      

Get out your cards. At this point, it’s time to figure out what to do with your deck. We all know how to shuffle cards, right? Tarot cards are a bit bigger than playing cards but it’s easy to adjust. New decks can be slippery at first, just work with it.{Update: Lord of the Rings Tarot author, Terry Donaldson, writes that oiling your cards is one of the first things you should do. Look into it if you like.} Don’t damage them or bend them in half, it influences your outcome; even if you try to ignore that bent or marked card, your Zemyna (favorite goddess) , spirit guide or angel knows that you still see it in your subconscious. 

Here’s my new easy to understand Tarot. Shuffle the deck five times and cut it four times, which makes nine passes with the cards. Very importantly, on the last cut, concentrate solely on the Question. If you are doing a reading for somebody else, then that person (asking the question) makes the last cut as he/she completely concentrates. The cards that are cut last are the ones you will be using, so (duh) , these are important so focus on. Shuffle and cut thoughtfully because this is an absolute.



7
3
9 6 (1 and 2) 4 10 

8



Try a dry run. Shuffle the cards 5 times (elements) and cut them 4 times (directions) concentrating on the question throughout, especially on the last cut. “Will I ever take a European cruise?” “What will be my economic future?” The first two cards are laid out as indicated above and my Lord Of The Rings Tarot book says card 3 goes above (a crowning) and this is where this reading diverges from other Celtic Cross readings: Other deck instructions say to start on the right, for no particular reason and there are books that say card 3 goes on the bottom! 

My Lord of the Rings Tarot book says the third card goes on top and Card #4 goes to the right; #5 goes at the bottom and #6 to the left. (See above) Card six concerns future influences and is where you’re really free to interpret future events and influences. This is where you put your knowledge to work, because Tarot is not just for the esoterically gifted, I insist, but also a way for friends and family to communicate and influence the future in some way and to also share in some fun. Divination? Yes. Evil? No.

Hey! I just remembered what one of the other books said. The Celtic Cross reading has something to do with the Catholic ‘sign of the cross’, though it didn’t say how. The sign of the cross is a razzle-dazzle Catholics do with their hands before they pray or walk in a church. I was wondering what to do with the last 4 cards, so utilizing this idea, we go top, bottom, left and then right for a symbolic sign of the cross as you lay out the last four cards. (See diagram.) 

Traditionalists say a tarot deck that was given to you should be the deck that you use. Here’s a good time to mention that a Tarot deck would be a great Christmas, Samhain or Solstice gift and a good way to introduce your friends, relatives and co-workers to two aspects of Paganism, Tarot and our Holidays. Run them off a copy of this chapter and fold it up in their present. Get them a deck they will be able to use and, happily, most decks have books to go along with them. If not, order Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis. There are so many interesting tarot decks, so find some books you feel comfortable with.

Part 3: When you read about Astrology and Tarot, just remember that, “astrological aspects are an addition to a reading, and they are never required." Astrology and Tarot have crossed paths at different times in history but are exclusive of each other. For instance, where did the choice of 78 cards in a deck come from? The twelve houses of the zodiac say some. Add 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12=78.” 

Okay, if you still have your cards laid out then let’s start. Sometimes I have simple questions.

Today my question is: Should I put Tarot for Newbs in my book, History Of The Pagans, or make it something separate? Let’s find out. I shuffle five times to mince up any previous throw. Then I cut 4 times concentrating solely on the question throughout. The first card is the three of coins. My Lord of the Rings Deck shows Bilbo in his library. The first card indicates the present situation of the questioner. Recently, my life seems to be about learning new things and this card says to ‘extol in the learning of new things' to make life even more interesting. Learning a new craft such as tarot is an excellent use of time’ this card says.

The second card lays sideways across the first one and directly influences it. This card is the Ace of Swords and most prominently featured is Gwaihir the Eagle. Remember, in Lord Of The Rings, Gwaihir saved the day a several times when least expected. A positive card, it says unprecedented opportunities are present. ‘By all means, include the tarot chapter’ is what I’m hearing so far. 

The third card concerns goals. It’s the six of Cups. Remember, card three goes above, a crowning achievement in your life. (See diagram) A playful card, the six of Cups shows Merry and Pippin smoking Saruman's ‘pipeweed’ while they laugh about the victory of the Ents and the fall of Orthanc. The card says ‘re-discover the child within’, a reminder to not be so serious and to have fun. Sometimes I do take things too seriously; I need to loosen up and have fun so I should make a tarot chapter fun and accessible. Our modern sensibilities demand excellence with playfulness and I need to remember this. 

The 4th card goes to the right of the center cards and the card will show some aspect of the distant past that links with this question. It’s a card from the 22 card major Arcana; the important cards, if you will. The Hermit is the card, that’s me -- not real keen on city life, even in my distant past, I had been wishing for a country paradise. Never planning on doing anything of significance in life, but secretly hoping I could and History Of The Pagans is where all the different aspects of my life come together. I feel that writing History of the Pagans is what I was meant to do.

Paganism will be one polarizing issue in the near future. Everything that has been under the media radar regarding paganism will charge the atmosphere. Maybe I can help by revealing some of the mystery while admitting that, even to a skeptic like me, magic is there when you use the Tarot. 

The 5th card is below the center. I deal a card that indicates that careful thinking, but decisive action is needed regarding recent past events Can I learn tile and stonemasonry and be a better father and husband and increase my business income? Can I learn Tarot and many other things that have fallen in my lap lately? Determination and focus may yet trump my chronic procrastination. 

Card 6 is about future influences and I draw The Hanged Man, which I don't ever remember getting before. This is not good because it means some delay is in store. Should I rename the book, Pagan History and Culture? History of the Conquered People? A stumbling block is “in the cards" says card 6. Hanged Man indicates some sort of delay and with some readings it concerns court cases plodding along and delaying action, but I don't think this is the case. When I type out the book I shouldn’t waste time. Things could get delayed and the card says to persist with my goals. {Update: Grandma went into Hospice and died shortly after I did this reading and it took a while to get up to speed with our lives I can see now in retrospect. Grandma was an important aspect of the children’s lives and she was very helpful and kind and we honor her memory.} 

In the study of Tarot, you will read about cards ‘reversed’. I make sure they are all facing the same direction before I shuffle them. Those reversed cards add so much inexactness, bewilderment and negativity that I personally avoid them altogether. I recently discovered that reversed cards were introduced barely 100 years ago… specifically to discourage people like me who try to explain tarot for everyone’s use. (Some might say there is something to cards that are near each other or related to another but that is another layer of difficulty I need to comprehend, and this will lead to a deeper level of understanding.) 

Card 7 is the questioners’ attitude. My book says three of Cups means rediscovering someone from the past. This has come up in my readings a lot. Someone I know from the past is going to have some sort of influence on a job or occupation, my book and my future. How does this relate to my current attitude? I used to think that my friends are more likely to enjoy things I write than people off the street. Buddha Bing! Now I’m suddenly inclined to think that I really need to rediscover maybe not a friend from the past, but the attitude I had in the past. 

Here is the magic of the tarot; follow what your heart is telling you and be open to what may be revealed. Loosen up on the direct ‘meanings’ of the cards and stay intellectually nimble with interpretation. As I was contemplating this card, I realized that it may not be an old friend from the past, but how I used to meet dozens of people in short periods of time during my young adulthood. I learned so much from the constant parade of unique people and the situations and scenarios of my youth. Tarot is not Rubik’s Cube. 

Card 8 is about how other people affect the outcome, and environmental factors (like if a hurricane blows the house away and I have to move) . It’s the 4 of Cups and that says ‘new friendships will occur’. The last couple of years have been about full time family, and besides, you get older and you tend to want to stay home anyways. But, I do need to send up the periscope to see beyond the current existence I had been leading and card 8 encourages me to get out and make new friends, friends who know what the tarot is. 

Card 9 is about inner emotions, my hopes, fears and anxieties. I flip over a card; it’s The World. Everything I’ve done before is just practice. History of the Pagans and the Tarot chapter is to be my entry into The World. 

Finally the 10th card indicates the final outcome, the Net result and cumulative factors in answering the question. High Priestess comes up. This indicates balance with our goddess, everything lining up for a positive yin and yang result. Pagans will accuse me of occasional insensitivity and Christians will accuse me of… who knows... whatever they can think of, but the end result will be something that pleases the goddess. Tarot for pagans? The cards say ‘by all means!’ It will be part of the balanced picture in the book I’m writing. So there you have it, Tarot is for all of us.

I hope this has encouraged you to try a reading on your own. The readings I have done for myself so far seem freaky accurate, but more than that, I’m able to see problems and obstacles in a different light. The Tarot opens up the creative parts of our mind. The readings have given me more confidence in myself and provided me the occasional illumination to move forward with this new kind of life I’m creating. 

When I went and got my first professional reading, the results matched the ones I was coming in with; they really were. Tarot Card practitioners can interpret my results here and let me know if I’m close with my interpretation. 

I remember the Tarot reader explained to me ‘she had a gift’ and said I ‘had a guardian angel over my left shoulder’. Maybe us simple folk can’t really see angels but we all have gifts, remember? Tarot is for me and Tarot is for you, too.



 
Footnotes: 
THE LORD OF THE RINGS TAROT; TERRY DONALDSON
TAROT PLAIN AND SIMPLE; ANTHONY LOUIS

 

 

1-2-13   THE WAY OF THE BIRDS

"We all learn to love all eventually"

To deny yourself the many simple joys during this one life time is to do the worst type of damage you can to your spirit.

 The less you use magic, the better it works.                                         

 In his book, Sand County Almanac, author Aldo Leopold wrote, "Amid the endless mediocrity of the commonplace, a crane marsh holds a paleontological patent of nobility, won from the march of eons.”     ( 1 )

              We love the birds, and plant our gardens in consideration of them. Some birds migrate thousands of miles and my effort is to show you the way to plug back into nature.  The secret is the birds and even if you've planted just one Mulberry Tree, our world ecosystem becomes a better place. The birds also symbolize the spiritual wings we grow after we die that we use to guide us back to our actual immortal selves. Hang on atheists, to find solutions to intractable dilemmas, and compromises with opposing sides, we need to look at problems from all angles. So we get back to our home base, a place our spirit can hide in this life, and the place we recharge as we wait for the next cosmic experience after this is over.

        If you're an atheist who doesn't believe in an afterlife, then we are just birds that fly into the picture window and then…BONK! We're dead, right? Consciousness lost forever, since we are no better than the dead bug on the windshield.  There is no Heaven or Hell for anyone or anything, so enjoy the experience of life the Atheists tell us. But maybe there's just a bit more, a bit more that we cannot know: the Way of the Birds.   

                This is what you are here for, just what you are doing right now and what you will do an hour from now. Not to be constantly sacrificing your freedom by working every minute at some menial occupation or keeping the devil at bay with busyness and business.  Maybe you spend way too many hours shopping and cooking your healthy meal like the city slicker Liberals and Hipsters, keeping the body pristine, but deceiving the spirit.

         Type A personalities are always in the accomplishment mode and that's fine, but they shouldn't be chastising those who pursue art, music, gardening, poetry, poor eating habits and other "unproductive" distractions and diversions.   These Type A over achievers are working to exhaustion so their kids can go to college, as they continually tell everyone they meet.  They don't consider working together to decrease the cost of college (most of it is bank interest. ) Wealth is all important to them, and people will spend decades kicking and clawing for every dollar, year after year, "so they can retire comfortably", but they still have the "carpe diem " refrigerator magnet.

         To deny yourself the many simple joys during this one lifetime, is to do the worst type of damage you can to your spirit.  We are actually meant to enjoy this; our only life and our life should be about diversions and experiencing as many physical and cerebral pursuits that we can. And Love. For some Love is the only religion.

                  I want to help those who have been buried alive by dogma, or regimentation and authoritarian excess. I want to help other readers to see this world of endless diversity, with all its flavors and colors and scents and experiences and our priceless emotional interactions with our earth mates.   We still have everything we need on a planet that once flowed with abundance; we don't even need to strive for more conveniences. We have everything we need, and enough for everybody, but a more equitable economic system needs to be put in place. A handful of amoral industrialists need to feel like they control the world. 

.            I relate to different aspects of religion in this book, but the over-riding goal is to truly explain how American Freedom of Religion is supposed to work.    For instance, Syrian refugees, many Islamic, are coming to this continent by the thousands. We've spent hundreds of years invalidating the injustice called Christianity by keeping the Ten Commandments off of public buildings and swatting down other unconstitutional Christian initiatives.  We want environmental justice, and it is not an Agenda 21 idea to desire pristine watersheds and diverse forest lands.

        We can see in our lifetime how much has been lost, how much garbage has been accumulating. Yearning for permanence, we ruminate on how many flip phones must be in landfills by now. 

                   One example of knowing your Constitution is understanding why we don't put the ten commandments on court building laws. The founding revolutionaries excoriated and eviscerated religions creepy grasp on the United States. Forget all that glennbeck nonsense that there is nothing in the Constitution about the separation of church and state. There was to be no god or Jesus in the constitution. I don't want police cars to say In God we Trust.  So when our gracious Islamic brothers and sisters want to kneel and pray 5 times a day at work or in the public, I have every right to object to this practice.  Your constitutional rights end where mine begin. I can pray five times a day too, and I guarantee you it is disconcerting to hear my freedom of religion. I pray to my Metal Gods at full volume.

                                                             ********************************************************************************

         Once you get past the morass of religion, then you can go anywhere, and I discuss how we can all get there. I will never get mired down in any particular topic so bear with me as we get through a few religious imbroglios and I will try not to be verbose or pedantic.

          I write in the style of my favorite writers, though not as articulately of course. Richard Hofstadter and his Age of Reform is tedious to read to most, but contains eye opening hidden history that was written decades before Howard Zinn, and remarkable perspectives that made a great impression on me.  Henry David Thoreau set up Walden Pond in a beautiful way to last for all time with some of the freshest perspectives in print.  An enlivened topic hopping book that is extremely popular. The third major influential book is Sand County Almanac, and it is laid out in different sections with different perspectives on Nature by Aldo Leopold, and was another inspiring favorite.  I will try to keep topics moving along.

        My writing may seem studious, tedious and cheeky, but its ideas are hopefully shocking to the throwaway culture and engrained patterns of brainwashing from the television, and maybe some food for thought for all you'ns out there reading this. With Atheists in mind, I keep it relevant to this rapidly growing demographic. Walden Pond, Age of Reform and Sand County Almanac are my models and I am not looking for a best seller, just to be an inspiration to those ready to spur on the future. In my inspired moments I wish I could be the Thomas Paine of the Third American Revolution.
                   The main emphasis of my book called, "The Earth Movement," is to explain that 2016 and 2017 is the time to stand up for the earth before Toxic Terrorism makes her uninhabitable.   Dead Biological Zones are appearing, from the Gulf of Mexico to lifeless gated communities, that are constantly sprayed for insects, and treated for rats. They can't have snakes. Rich people don't like snakes.  

                   Pollinators and migrating song birds are on the ropes, while shorelines are devastated by oil spills, and Superstorms are eroding sandy coastal areas. What lay ahead for 2016? Underground water storage of our aquifers is imperiled by Fracking and saline intrusion from the ocean.  The gutting of Mother Earth will be complete in about 50 years at this rate, and The Earth Movement is about all of us doing what we know we need to do.  Earth can save herself if She chooses, but we don't want to bring our world to the brink of environmental collapse because too much will have been lost.

        We seem to be evolving, finally, a mass repudiation of the previous traditions of abusive farming and careless metal ore extraction. 

            There is a simplistic answer to the meaning of life and the reason we are here. We are here to create abundance that will lead to sustainability and we are here to create life, and to become Love.  Humans will need this planet for a million years and natural resources need to be rationed to last that long, while smaller decentralized markets can be developed to sustain 9 Billion people.  Some say we are far past the tipping point of the earth being able to sustain all 7.3 billion people. Others say the earth could easily house 15 or 20 billion. This is the time to set the traditions of the future.  This unstable world population  has doubled in my lifetime, and we need to cap world population at 9 billion so we can adjust to the frantic grab for resources that have occurred.

It was predicted water issues were coming to the fore and they were right.  The crisis in Flint Michigan has damaged children for life. Why was GE and Ford allowed to use the Hudson River as their waste basket? We need revolutions that enhance life for all, but the Industrial Revolution is rife with unseen costs, and the deceptively named "green revolution" allowed a population explosion in Asia and India and a drastic downturn in the quality of life.  At the same time eschewing the ancient traditions they carried with them while providing sweatshops with warm bodies.                                                              

(2) "The secret to life lay within a single seed" (2)  It grows into a mighty Oak or a sturdy Cherry tree.  But for those who can only steal from nature, and sell the resources that belong to all, you are getting far more "free stuff" than any food stamp moocher could ever claim.   Not stealing candy from a baby but degrading lives that haven't been conceived yet.                                                                                                  

To deny any life of its food and home, is to invalidate your existence in the Universe, and I believe any creature capable of love is capable of immortality.  Our only mission is to create life and become love. Many will fall by the wayside; the remainder of us will come together in loving harmony to become part of God or The Force or whatever, uniting in love, thusly concluding that,   "we all learn to love all eventually."   God has no gender because it no longer matters what sex we are after this physical life. The God and Goddess have no pistil or stamen in the spiritual world.                                                               We want to prevent the poisoning of the seed genome that could take hundreds of years to fix. Monsanto and their kind are trying to prevent half of our purpose in life. To create life.  A planet filled with genetically engineered plants? No. Our guts tell us no, even if we can't quite articulate it.

Big restorations and reclamations need to be started, and the most polluting industries should be taxed heavily to give cleaner competitors a better chance. Big Business has given themselves too much in the last 100 years. The resource extraction insanity continues unabated, and China is strategically cornering the world markets of precious metals and workers of the world do nothing. The metal belongs to all of us, not to be privatized by Oligarchy or Communism, remember the earth belongs to all of us. Production and the product are separated. It has become time to stop The Final Slaughter…  of Nature and Human rights, of Family; and Community.

       Then there is Green resistance. The Greenhammer.

        The canary in a coal mine is migrating north with climate change.   In millenniums past, there has been climate change and glaciers ground their way southwards, and when an ice age was over, plants migrated back northwards. Bird populations are critical, if we have to adjust to climate change, because it was the birds that carried the seeds to new locations during the other geological disturbances.   Small songbirds carrying endemic and rare seeds to new locations are crucial in saving plant species and enhancing habitats. Every nut and bolt of Nature must be preserved as Aldo Leopold insisted back in the forties, so we know what we have. 

                 Pope Francis is making it easy for a billion Catholics around the world to feel comfortable about embracing environmentalism; caring about the Creator AND the Creation, he suggests.

             Children are learning more all the time about ecological niches and the animal world, while Fundamentalist Kooks say the "Green Cult" is brainwashing kids into worshipping Nature.  In the meantime, real work is being done with conservation. The Nature Conservancy has a great program that tries to save "the best of the last" and have created working partnerships with all parties involved in a large land purchase. Birds are dwindling in numbers and they need to move northward, and it is a crucial time to save land. Our wildness, the rushing rivers and primeval forests had been given to the Capitalists of weaker generations and now we are at war to get back what is left to save and prevent The Final Slaughter of Nature. 

            Controlling the food and fuel is the goal of the global corporate hegemony, because as it's been said, "if you got them by the balls, the heart and mind will follow. "  Communist and Capitalist fascists want that control and authority.  It turns out that Anarchy is order and respect, government is confusion and abuse. The Kurds in the Middle East are working of self-autonomous villages. The people without a country, are uniting without hierarchy.

               Insectivorous birds are going to be very important for keeping insect populations from becoming overwhelming during climate change also.  Pest insects are known for their rapid birth cycles and there will be more problems with insects over the years. As the climate changing occurs, it's the fragile songbirds that gets into those micro niches where the rare things are and carries them hundreds of miles.  Frogs and toads, not so much.  They are one of the more sophisticated components of our Biosphere; eating the seeds, carrying fish eggs in their talons, chunks of moss and ferns carried and dropped by those same bird claws. We can't accept stripped down ecosystems anymore. The middle class has learned to settle for crumbs and now we are facing Environmentalisms Last Stand.

                Squeezing out every dollar of profit hasn't worked in the last 100 years. There is not a system of full employment in place as you would think which should have happened, given the world resources were handed to them and they had a hundred years to put a good economic order in place.  The thieves, maligners and the destroyers of nature are the heroes of capitalism. They neglected to invest in people this is what you feel in your gut. This is what is wrong; your earth is rapidly being degraded beyond repair.  Capitalism fails and flails as the façade of Manifest Destiny crumbles away.                 

        We have 75% less habitat for migrating pollinators and others to deal with during this change of climate.  This is real. The Stock Market and money isn't quite as real.  Will the stock market be here in 10,000 years? This is an important question because Nature still needs to be here when the prosperity of Wall Street is long forgotten, and there are no ifs ands or buts about it.                                                                 In the 80's, when I lived in Connecticut,  I talked about ecosystems to whoever would listen and at home grew many heirloom seed crops.  I worked for Interior plant companies and a big greenhouse operation and nurseries and landscapers. It felt like it was one of the most important things to do. Promote the markets we think are best.  It doesn't matter what I believe or what the next person that walks in the door believes, it's what we all do.  We can't prove any beliefs till we are dead, you knuckleheads, so stick with reality. The environment is quite real, God maybe not so much,  and this is still my opinion.     

                   We have the seeds for a New Enlightenment, but nothing will grow if we don't sow a wiser, equitable and more sustainable course.  Life seeks life but at our center, we are only heart and spirit. To the right is a picture of when I had teosinte and corn on the same cob. Has it ever been done before? I grew the ancient ancestor of corn and have yet to raise any interest.

         We can combine our ideas and create consensus.   Since 95% of the corn and corn products are now using genetically modified seeds, I don't even eat corn anymore.  I also see empty fields and hope someone will run with the  idea of growing non-GMO corn.  Mexico had banned GMO's and are probably still using F1 hybrid seeds but also have many variations of heirloom seeds.  Non GMO corn is going to be BIG.  I want to get back to corn but it doesn’t grow really great in Florida.

                There were once over 250 varieties of apples in North America during the days of Johnny Appleseed, but many have since gone extinct. In our puny human life, we can't see the adaptions that plants and animals have made over many generations, and the importance of saving seeds is lost on most people.  Saving seeds is one of the most important things we can do if you know about genetic adaption and the need for as big a seed bank as possible.

 Saving our marshes for the Cranes is our responsibility. Our disappearing indigenous cultures around the world are very much one of humankinds greatest links to the past.  The Neolithic patent  of invention.  The past that we have precious little left, and we  need to save the best of what's left. To take a rare seed to its fruiting stage is a great gift for all. We know many medicines are derived from the folk medicine, and our food sourced from a vast, adaptive ethnobotany of various indigenous people. The pedantic, authoritarian struggle for control and all the profits of the world's food supplies, benefit so few, while so many others are displaced from sacred traditional lands. Millions of farming communities around the world are torn apart to feed the devouring Hexxus of Capitalism.  Communism is completely inequitable and I often refer to it as a chalkboard Utopia and an  environmental disaster .

 The next step is how to spread abundance to all. Should it be Capitalism, with its waste and competition? Should it be socialism with the government coming to our apple orchards to count and confiscate  our products for the good of all?  It's neither, and we know that, and we need to discuss how we can open markets for real, and re-invent the family farm for all the people in the world. Green Resistance insists that profiteering from earth destruction has to end, and all food production must be sustainable.

GMO's should be tested inside enclosed biospheres for 50 years before they are ever planted and I know there are many who are pulling their hair out realizing GMO's are the one step too far in the wrong direction.  More, unfortunately, seem to think it's just fine. "They've been breeding plants since time began, nothings is different"  is what I hear. 

We create abundance from virtually nothing with the simple seed.  It is so critically important for the future that we have as large a seed base as possible. We should be able to create networks to grow enough for all and the surpluses are directed towards the needy so we can all eat.  I admire people like Jere Gettle who bought the 200 year old nursery in my hometown of Wethersfield Connecticut and he is an avid seed saver and his Baker Seeds from the western USA has incredible heirloom varieties, and the company also is strongly against GMO seeds and these are the kind of companies we should be supporting. Sensible people who know their science don’t want to trust GMO's.  It is easy to visualize the seeds that have been saved and planted for thousands of years will become contaminated forever by GMO's. This is the reason to stop GMO's, just that alone.

I happened to glom on to Seed Savers Exchange way back in 1977 and bought every endlessly fascinating seed book they had.  It was inspiring to watch them grow from nothing to the industry standard and a clearinghouse for seed growers. Seed Savers Exchange cried out boldly about giant corporations buying out all the small seed companies to marginalize all growers. Comparing to what is in stores TODAY, these catalogs by Seed Savers Exchange and Bakers Seeds and others have firmly developed a system of sharing seeds, while stemming the flow of extinctions in the plant world.   In the nick of time, toot sweet. Most of the old seed growers and are dead and/or gone. Bought to be buried as they say in Hollywood.

To clear cut a forest for profit is to deny life to others and perpetuates the slaughter of natures beasts. Statistics show a rapid increase of the human population the last 100 years, with dramatic decreases of bird, animal and fish populations and forest cover these last 60 years.  You don't need a graph to tell you where this is going.  We can't accept the degradation of the earth, but seem unable TO DO anything other than the slow, inexorable and incremental holding off of the forces of greed. Do what you can with the time you have available with your best talents.  Let's make 2016 the "year of the boomerang"(       3    )

 I challenge all to take the journey through this book. This is not a guide for dummies or idiots and   "The Earth Movement' is not only an alternative to the dogma of religion, but also the conventional wisdom of science.  The inexact nonsense of religion and the precise bullshit of science is how I like to describe it. I am trying to plant seeds in your mind so you will understand the need to create abundance for the future.    A study guide to create consensus that leads to action.  Compassion is a cycle of action and accomplishment.

  They are all wrong and in the secret green cult religion, we go to a place called Summerland.  That's where our dogs are, where The Source and The Force abide and abode.  Down the road a piece is Valhalla, kind of a private club. It's sunny all the time but there are gloomy and black places too for those that like that. Where most of us return to. A place in the afterlife for those who don't follow bible or torah or koran rules. Your god can send an extradition order to my gods but it will be refused.  Subverting the  Precepts of subservience and  the false promises of blessed eternity, we frolic in the afterlife in preparation for merging with the Gods and the Goddesses to become a pus filled, gelatinous piles of love. 

The Way of the Birds;  a tiny seed rectally jettisoned to land somewhere to begin life anew, is the simple secret of life. Look no further and nurture a seed within yourself, and grow where you are.   Take a sabbatical from how things are supposed to be and spend 2016 growing a movement, an Earth Movement.

 Faith is a form of madness where people transfer their authority and responsibility to priests and preachers,  pastors mullahs and rabbis.  Strength lies in the consent of the worker citizen voter.  Don't give it away. Explained in this book is how to create a "mandate from the masses" and all political power will derive from the "free consent of the people".

 The Way of the Birds Is that which we cannot know,  and for those that know that we can't know what there is to know and not know.   Atheism is my default position, but being a polytheist is far more interesting. and atheists can ignore magic at their peril.    Magic does not require divinity. It's about the earth.  

        

   1-2-14    OXOHEARTSVOKEN  600

                   “…getting in the zone is  sometimes the best us ordinary folk can manage. "

                  The peoples love, the peoples magic. Magic is not so strange, it's about passion and the Law of Attraction works for some and Oxoheartsvoken has heart in the middle. My focus in The Earth Movement is to offer the reader a different perspective on a wide range of cultural prisms and lesser known alternatives for consideration. I made up my own DIY religion to help those who think they have to follow a major religion and not one of their own making.  I've done obsessive research to find the oldest and first religion and this is it.

               I’m trying to catch people before they reject paganism, and I want them to realize they can make their beliefs their own. It seems that if you have a simpler, earth loving set of beliefs, this is somehow seen as less than pagan in many circles.  I’m telling you greenhammers, don’t kowtow to traditional, because we are creating tradition now, and rediscovering some of the ancient rituals intuitively.  In my hunt for the oldest original religion, I came across so many stories and cultural keystones and newly revived cultural ceremonies may very well outlast traditional reconstructionism.  Tradition is, after all, little more than 65 years old since Gardner’s book purportedly revived witchcraft from the misty past and is where Wicca, but not witchcraft, is derived from.

               Don’t get me wrong about magic because I do believe there is magic, and the more in tune with it I get, the more readily it happens. But my approach is that you shouldn’t summon or call upon magic any time you want. To all psychics, sensitives, empaths and others: some of us don’t have these superpowers that you have and the phrase “getting in the zone” is  sometimes the best us ordinary folk can manage. We need to know when "the better magic" is in the air and pull it down.

 

                    I would next like to quote Scott Cunningham from ‘Earth Power’ as he explains his view of magic. “Magic was the first religion and that if you lovingly utilize the forces of nature to cause beneficial change, you can also become one with them. It is these powers that are personified as gods and goddesses.” (4)

           Maybe the goddesses are trying to tell us to wake up before growing populations and shrinking resources reach a point of perpetual crisis. For now it may be more important to halt the degradation of our planet, and as I like to say, 100 hands clasped in prayer cannot plant a tree.   

           In conclusion, I feel the less you use magic, the better it works. During a pagan pilgrimage to Salem Massachusetts I went jogging and walking to sightsee that way. I went up and down the multitudes of brick sidewalks and roads,  because I got the notion that maybe I could capture a bit of the magic of this witchy place in a broken piece of brick road. For 25 minutes I searched and found nothing.  There was not a single loose piece. Jogging here, walking there and finding nothing I could use, but then something came over me. "Use the Force Luke". I did a secret ceremony to the universe and as I closed my eyes I heard, ’go here and turn there’ and sure enough 45 seconds later I found the perfect piece. I mean really, how does this happen? Very simply, this is the folk magic.

            Oxohearts voken is the peoples love. The love of all the people. The love that communicates and binds us someday, when we all learn to love all eventually. It's there for all of us. Except some of those nasty Republican hypocrites whose soul will be extinguished. Lol.

            

 


1-2-15

THIS  IS  THE  

        :     FOLK  MAGIC

We are at a crossroads here in the 21st century with magic, environmentalism and the future of pagan religions. The pagan-curious are looking into polytheism, and many of them are active in environmental stewardship and land preservation. As nature lovers, greens and environmental activists investigate what paganism might be, and their first impression is generally that of the Wiccan religion. There are many gradations of belief between Priestesses and Tree Planters.

 

“Can I call myself a witch since I live so close to nature in my work and home life?” No I was told; I have to be to call myself a witch. I need to listen to someone else’s ideas if I want to become a Witch or Druid. Truthfully, I don’t want anyone to interfere with the path I take, a path that lays somewhere between the Green man and Greenpeace. A path I refer to as, Progressive Eclecticism. So I am not a witch ...or a Druid, but perhaps like you, understand the peril of destroyed ecosystems and polluted oceans.

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I totally believe in the big tent concept for Pagans, and I try to promote the freewheeling eclecticism I enjoy. Sure, we need teachers and clergy and experienced pagans to provide guidance of course, but it can‘t be like the Church with its cowering masses and kowtowing hierarchy all kissing each other’s rings. It should be more like the Unitarian Universalists and their reality based morality and initiatives regarding social justice. 

 

 

Remember the 6th principle of witchcraft and that's, "We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, and those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have given of themselves in leadership." Unity without hierarchy. 

 

The pagan-curious would like to consider becoming pagan but are a little put off with the costumes they see at gatherings or in books. Pagan books seem to be all about spells and ceremony, and newbies end up trying to figure out the right candle color to use in ‘witch’ situation. A green living person will wonder why there is not a bigger emphasis on ecosystem stewardship in Paganism. Many Greens have been living as Pagans all along and not realizing they are. They appreciate the living relationship between the earth and sun and they see that Mother Nature could be perceived as Gaia, a goddess. On the other hand, many Pagans know virtually nothing about Nature, but trot out their certifications and who they studied under to authenticate their weekend witch status.

 

The green pagan-curious are not spiritual or religious necessarily, but they do feel something and they are curious about it. The Mother, the earth spirit, lies somewhere between perception and reality and many people are looking for some sort of link between spirituality and stewardship of the Earth. 

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I’m happy to walk outside to look at the full moon or praise the north wind or pray to the corn mother for a successful crop and feel no need to be initiated into any specific path. I made up my own religion as a prototype of how easy it is to be comfortable with the path you are creating for yourself. There are many solitaries like me who aren’t worried about any pagan or Wiccan absolutes. 

 

I believe that earth lovers looking into paganism are put off with the ceremonial excess they see and often times turn away. The gardener, earth activist, or  tree planting green would be considered, “just a tree hugger, you’re not a ‘real’ pagan.” Says you; Pagan is as pagan does, earth lovers are real pagans, not neo-pagans. So here I am, Martin Luther, creating a schism with pagans, but I’ll say it again--more trees and less candles, more organic vegetables and less skulls and demons. The near future will be less about ceremony and more about attaining full civil rights for Druids and Witches who cannot openly practice or talk about their religion in this sweet land of liberty and other countries.

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Reality based morality will be about restoring ecosystems worldwide after 150 years of profit taking by industrial capitalism. The future will be less about candle color and more about creating new forms of governance and an economic model of sustainable capitalism to get us to the end of this century and beyond. Pagans will be there to replace war, violence and greed with passion and compassion, but there are bridges and rough terrain to cross and it won’t be as easy as using your broomstick to get to the Emerald City. “Did you bring your broomstick? Most people worship the golden calf, and walk that yellow brick road of greed behind the façade of the flag and the cross.

 

The Wiccans have a strong form of rituality and it works just right for them. I have found that witches, as a sociological group, have a good focus on right living, and are the best contributors to forums and websites all across the internet, and exhibit the passion and compassion to move us forward, but I do feel that it is not for everybody. To be a pagan means you can do what you want, don’t let any book tell you there are absolutes. Pagans may tend to be naughty and impulsive but are not evil. The disparity between the perception and the reality of witchcraft is just amazing. Instead of going down to the Moose Lodge to tip some suds; witches get together and promote a lot of positive action and enhanced lives, now what's the bother all about?”

 

There is the classic pagan ceremony where a knife represents the male and a goblet of wine symbolizes the woman, and everyone takes it so seriously and here is where I part company with today’s pagans. Why do I need to do that? It’s just not right for me. It’s like kneeling and standing in church when I was a child; it seems kind of silly and uncomfortable. I kneel for no deity. 

 

I’m a gardener and I have a few knives around, like 15, and they have many uses. Cut open our modern impenetrable packaging, slice fruit, cut string and tape, tighten glasses, open up bags of mulch, carve pinewood derby cars and on and on. Do I really need an athame, a double-sided knife, one sharp and the other dull? I do have a favorite knife that has a compass in the handle and it's nice for outdoor ceremonies and orienting to the 4 directions, but my favorite use for it is to cut seed potatoes which I do every fall. 

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I have hope that potatoes can be my sustainable crop and I call the knife my potato knife. Books and practitioners say a pagan without an athame is like a mechanic without a wrench, a dentist without a drill: you absolutely must have an athame. My favorite potato knife is going to be my athame if I really need one, so does anyone have a real problem with that? Let’s loosen up a bit here and start setting up posts to make the tent bigger. 

 

It’s time to discuss what aspects of magic are needed for the future. Why is it that New Agers are so into rocks, huh? Oh, stones; they’re not rocks, I’m told. I call them rocks so bear with me. Rock magic seems interesting and I do have a stone shrine indoors with some small but very interesting unpolished rocks…I mean stones. 

 

A few years ago I found this shrine fit on my dashboard and startling things, mostly good and some bad, happened for three weeks straight when I placed it there till I brought it back in the house. Stone Magic happens more readily than you might think. 

 

 

This is why I indulge in what I call Oxoheartsvoken, the as yet discovered folk religion of the Reindeer People, the cave painters. The magic of the people, for the people and by the people and in synch with the presence of the planet Venus, that planet we call the morning and evening star. Venus is visible far more often than the moon and helped early navigators such as the Polynesians and the Phoenicians and by now many know about the mysterious pentacle shape that Venus traces across our night sky every eight years. 

 

Today, pagans think they are Druids, Priests or Priestesses and my point is that in every culture there was the shaman or priestly class and the rest of us who would prefer less ceremony. As you begin a journey into ritual and magic, you first have to question the books that explain about magic and its practitioners. Are they capturing what 90% of us did: the folk magic? Not everyone can be a Priest, Druid or pagan clergy. 

 

Experienced pagans might rail against someone like me who has unconventional ideas and refuses to wear the fairy king costumes. As I like to say, ‘Halloween is my new year, not what I do all year.’ Costumes don’t seem natural and I know there are many people that agree with me on that one, maybe we really don’t need to wear robes. No offense of course.

 

Pagan Traditionalists have created too big of a wall that conservationists and environmentalists try to look over but only end up shrugging their shoulders and walking away because all they see is ceremony that is about connecting with the divine. Getting your hands dirty as a gardener or speaking at a town meeting in support of habitat restoration isn’t even on the radar of all those city slicker pagans. 

 

Neophytes to pagan initiation may hear, “Your athame has to be blah blah blah” or some version of, “you’re just starting, you don’t know anything, ” which is highly insulting. In my opinion, Paganism needs to be more about planting trees and less about spells and candles and I think there are many people who would agree, and many of us have a lot to bring to the table and this is why I’m promoting the big tent concept of progressive eclecticism. 

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There are those that say you have to be on one specific path or another and you’re not a real pagan if you mix and match your deities from different pagan religions. I’m a real pagan in my view, although serious pagans would disagree with my notion of Progressive Eclectics and my iconoclastic pantheon of 9 goddesses and 23 gods. 

 

Wicca may be the face of paganism with its Lord and Lady Ceremony, but in time there will be ten times as many progressive eclectics as there are initiated wiccans, so the sooner you open that barn door and let us all in, the better.

 

I’m trying to catch people before they abandon paganism and I want them to realize they can make it their own. It seems that if you have a simpler earth loving set of beliefs this is somehow seen as less than pagan in many circles. I’m telling you greenies, don’t kowtow to traditional, because we are creating tradition now and are rediscovering some of the ancient rituals intuitively which may very well outlast traditional which is, after all, little more than 60 years old since Gardner’s book purportedly revived witchcraft from the misty past.

 

Don’t get me wrong about magic because I do believe there is magic and the more in tune with it I get, the more readily it happens. But my approach is that you shouldn’t summon or call upon magic any time you want. To all psychics, sensitives, empaths and others: some of us don’t have these superpowers and the phrase “getting in the zone” is the sometimes the best us ordinary folk can manage. 

 

I would next like to quote Scott Cunningham from ‘Earth Power’ as he explains his view of magic. “Magic was the first religion and that if you lovingly utilize the forces of nature to cause beneficial change, you can also become one with them. It is these powers that are personified as gods and goddesses.” 

 

My vision is that we all find our own way as Pagans and a so-called “newbie” has life experiences to draw on for their pagan expression. In my religion there are no newbies. A newbie could have superlative insights when a traditionalist may have lost their focus, spending an entire weekend “driving 300 miles in the Lincoln Escalade looking for coltsfoot root.” I would much rather take a walk around the ’hood and imagine the tree roots and shrub and flower roots all touching and entwining themselves for hundreds of miles as I take a walk, and not be a slave to spells, ritual and ceremony. You love nature, then call yourself a pagan if you like. Let those Reconstructionists call themselves neo-pagans if they want. Don’t quote me, but I think it was the Celtic tradition many hundreds of years ago that used severed heads to ‘see’ the future. If Celt Reconstructionists can pick and choose what practices to take into their spiritual future, then why can’t I? No offense of course.

 

 

Native Americans didn’t realize that the basis for the faith-based genocide by Europeans was because they were viewed as pagans, pure and simple; and yet today they don’t call themselves pagan to honor their part in the history of pagan civil rights. The Great Spirit of the Indigenous People kept this hemisphere in balance, and they have respected the Mother for thousands of years here in the U.S.A. The Vikings created settlements on the mainland peacefully, but Christopher Columbus thought the Caribbean islands they landed on was the Garden Of Eden and it was his job to drive out the ‘savages’, or at least enslave them and take their gold.

 

Is there an ancient mother and are there goddesses? What have the Goddesses been telling us: maybe they want us that we must encode liberty, embed equality, ostracize criminality and vanquish cruelty Maybe Hecate wants you to plant willow trees instead of invoking her to help with your love life. Maybe Cerridwen would rather have you using your creative will to help craft a cap and trade program that makes sense in this polluted world. Sedena of the Inuit doesn't need prayers so much as She needs a solution to the invasion of her cold northern arctic by Bernie Madoffs with drilling equipment. Maybe Yemaya wants you to indulge your carnal side a little less and take care of your little creations better.

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Jurate wants you to be aware that humans have killed and fished with a profit seeking rapaciousness that will leave future generations scratching their heads at the depletion of fishing stocks and the lack of earth stewardship, and the illusion of prosperity created by predatory capitalism. Maybe Freya is unimpressed with your double axe zipper pulls and wants you to raise your level of awareness about eroding topsoil and to learn how to certify organic growing conditions to keep up with the demand for clean food. The dragon tailed goddess Nu-Kua appreciates that you are beginning to understand about feng shui and Dharma, but would be happier if you understood more about the ecological devastation of war and the emotional toll on civilian populations. 

 

 

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Maybe the goddesses are trying to tell us to wake up before growing populations and shrinking resources reach a point of perpetual crisis. For now it may be more important to halt the degradation of our planet and I like to say 100 hands clasped in prayer cannot plant a tree. I wonder... is there a bridge that can be built between pagans and greens? Who can tell, because now all I see is a total disconnect. 

 

In conclusion, I feel the less you use magic, the better it works. During a pagan pilgrimage to Salem I went jogging and walking to sightsee that way. I was up and down the multitude of brick sidewalks and roads because I got the notion that maybe I could capture a bit of the magic of this place in a broken piece of brick road. For 25 minutes I searched and found nothing. Jogging here, walking there and finding nothing I could use, but then something came over me. I did a secret ceremony to the universe and I heard, ’go here and turn there’ and sure enough 45 seconds later I found the perfect piece. I mean really, how does this happen? 

VERY SIMPLY THIS IS THE FOLK MAGIC


 

 1-2-16    THE GODDESS GOD AND ME

       “The Neolithic symbol of the Great Goddess was the butterfly. In Runic symbolism, butterflies represents the souls flight to immortality and freedom. 3,000-8,000 years ago this symbol of the Goddess was represented by the double ax, which when drawn looks like the wings of the butterfly. This weapon became in old traditions the weapon of females, not males.” Quote from Szlablon Gorski

     Who’s the me you ask, in Goddess! God and Me? Me is always you and your own perceptions of the alleged creator. It’s about our ancient memory, and 2,700 generations of hunting and gathering and the profusion of goddesses in ancient history.

      In our present era the stunning hypocrisy of the Moral High Ground Hypocrites has disheartened many, while at the same time we also keep plunging into the tar pit of technology and genetics, nodding our heads to anything scientists say. The ordinary people, those of us who won’t get in the history books, need to clear a path somewhere between the inexact nonsense of religion and the precise bullshit of science. 

      I am compelled to prepare history in a different light; because amongst all of us peasants, pagans, office drones, functionaries, riff-raff, Heathens, Libertarians, workers and ordinary people; there is a lot of knowledge. We have too much wisdom to tolerate a country that says war brings freedom.

Many post war boomers are resting from the endless sinning, such as the plague of infidelity, and are turning back to their Catholic roots because they remember about last rites where a priest can forgive your sins at the moment before death. Amen! 


     I emphasize the goddess aspect of the God and Goddess spirituality of the pagans, because the balance is so askew. Here’s a quote from ‘The Return of the Mother’ by Andrew Harvey ”The tragic imbalance of the masculine has brought humankind to the brink of disaster, and unless we recover the feminine power of the psyche, the powers of intuition , patience, reverence for nature , and knowledge of the holy unity of things and marry in our depths these powers with the masculine energies of rule, reason, passion for order and control, life on the planet will end. The sacred marriage of the masculine and the feminine has to take place in our hearts and minds, whether we are male or female. The rich and organic integration it alone can furnish is the goal of human life.”


     My Goddess is a butterfly. It used to be the old white guy, how could it not be with seven years or more of Sunday school and Catholic tradition and jumping through every ritualistic hoop so I wasn’t doomed to spend eternity in That Place. A cell in hell awaits! Now as in the past, religion was overly represented in ruling society, and many unfair advantages have been given to these usurpers of race and gender equality. The double brush brain-washing of the very young is the cornerstone of modern society; modern Patriarchal and Industrial Society. 

        In the years to come, as the Old Order dies, teens entering the workforce need to question why religions are not taxed as their own taxes skyrocket because of an aging generation’s myopic foresight and a Republican Partys inability to balance a budget.


      Yes, a butterfly, I feel the gentle influence of the goddess has come into my life. I got a righteous nudge one emotional day. The ocean, plants, and insects seemed to have far more depth than I’d ever noticed. There was life in the trees that appeared subtly luminescent and as I looked around the insects were clearer and enlarged. I was gardening a two acre site and really felt connected to the ocean, sensing all the water connected to her, even the snow melting in the far north dripping off of branch tips, melting into rivulets and streams, then into rivers and lakes and to the ocean. 


     It was a special day and also involved a baby bird, nothing so miraculous, just keener perceptions temporarily. I drove into one of my accounts emotionally charged and upset, and as I stepped away from my truck I saw a dead baby bird in the driveway, and I thought that I  had been so emotionally distracted that I ran it over.

      As a gardener death is part of the job, for instance, I was eating lunch one day in a customer’s back yard and saw a squirrel fall out of a tree. I walked over and it was dead. Rabbits drown in customers’ pools, raccoons and large snakes can smell pretty bad after a few days dead and I find them hidden in bushes: and rats have a uniquely nauseating smell. Lawn dudes run over snakes and I’m usually the one to find the bird that flew into a glass door and on and on "All that dies, dies for a reason- to give its strength into the season” from Yes. So they get a respectful burial from me.


      Being upset already about the baby bird, I thought it was my fault and was kicking myself for being so stupid. I carried the bird over to an area where I hang out and have  Ceremony and dug a hole. When I finally looked closely at the bird, I saw numerous holes in its body. It had actually been pecked to death by the crows I later saw flying around; an abandoned nest is easy prey.


“Please Goddess” I said facing north, “Bless this baby bird and help me figure out how to get through the emotional firestorms in my life.” I felt an unusual focus as I got up off my knee and there were about seven or eight butterflies flitting about weaving patterns all around me. It was then that I began my experience of heightened perceptions, hearing every small insect noise and listening to a variety of birdlife that I normally don’t hear. It felt like I was in a parallel world and the amazement of my experience gave me a new lift on life and even to think about it now is a boost, I was completely renewed and still gain inspiration from that day. I was not tripping or high in any way.


     I’ve studied a lot of history and find various links between goddess cultures from The Baltic Sea to the Indian Ocean. Let’s start with the Goddess. For a mental exercise try saying Goddess every time you are going to say God. “Oh my Goddess, I left the oven on!”..or.. “Goddess help me, how come there are so many idiots in this world?” Try this for a month and you’ll start unkinking all the knots in your thinking. Pagans believe in a god and a goddess, the yin and yang of eastern religions, with the equality of men and women. Communicate with the Goddess, she is there.

      Don’t let Pagan Intellectuals convince you what to do. Give them the ancient hand gesture if you are told to be “Neo-pagan". Pagan is as pagan does, there’s no neo about it.   



      In the beginning, paganism could have incomprehensible lapses of reason and here is one of them. Ancient cults used severed heads to “see the future” or some such shit. Today, Pagans are non-violent and Satanism is not embraced by the Pagan community. The lie we have to live down is the link with Satan, which is ironic because, as Wiccan and Pagan web sites state, we don’t even believe there is a devil. Hardly the Anti Christ, we are the anti-Satans! But still coming out as a pagan means embracing the antagonism that comes our way from the superstitious Christians. Every Halloween my children’s friends and wife’s co-workers are talking about how Halloween is the “devils birth day.” You gotta wonder what is going on in the pulpits of America. 


       Some of us have no real place to hang our sociological shingle. We might go jogging but don’t always wear “runners gear”, or go ten speedin’ without our aerodynamic pointed helmet and tight spandex pants. We might have a motorcycle without needing to have the Tattitude to go with it. Maybe you are a war veteran but don’t wear camo pants and mustache to go with your angry body language. We are the independent minded and we transcend gender or race or anything else, and we are everywhere, in every country. We are the greatest fear of those who will compete to be leaders of the New World Order; we will be the Freethinkers in a world of greedy sheep. 


        We don’t think a God controls every move we make and hears every plea from every schmuck in Trenton and every overconfident blowhard in Hohaugen. Politically we are what I like to call Blue Collar Progressives or the Independent Green Majority. We may be Libertarian leaning conservationists, or   a gun toting animal lover who hunts for her own food; or any other of the numerous examples of good hearted, intelligent and caring people who don’t need much government or any religion. I think you understand what I’m getting at.
Text Box:       Waiting for her hard copy of 
    Compendium to arrive.

There is a simmering pot of independent thinkers across the world, no longer mentally hemmed in by government and religion. Bored peasants who know there is more to life than trusting authoritarian rule makers and morally lax culture kings. Imagine! 


     I have great hope that the emerging Chinese middle class may latch on to pagan ways, and they are returning to a now burgeoning Taoist Community. Taoism is one of the 5 approved religions of communist China but unfortunately, their leaders and our leaders need us to hate each other so  the gluttonously wealthy get kickbacks from the real source of evil in the world, the weapon manufacturers. Most of history is about charismatic men who find ways to convince other men to kill themselves as needed in battle for the country, religion or both. This has been the reality for 2500 years.

      Pagans have the intellectual foresight to logically launch us into a peaceful world, but preachers and priests needing to fill seats, and keep their easy jobs, will happily deceive with slick misrepresentations and derisive & dismissive put downs of Paganisms extremes. The Hindu Goddess with 22 arms is a favorite target. The idea of ANY goddess is generally met with exuberant resistance. Marija Gimbutas, the famed archaeologist, has concuded that goddess venerating societies were the norm 3 to 8 thousand years ago but she is roundly repudiated by many people.

       Do people really believe in the Devil? Come on…really? An eternity!? Tortured and burned? 83 years here and 600 gazillion years in Hell, it doesn’t make much sense to me. They are convinced a pagan like me will burn in their notion of Hell. "You seem like a nice person, too bad you are going to hell" I am told. Like I said, 'the inexact nonsense of religion and the precise bullshit of science.'

      There are over 1,500 Goddesses and Gods out there and so if I decide that something as simple as a butterfly can be my goddess, my Zemyna,  then that’s what I’m going to believe and to hell with you. Because the butterfly will always remind me of death and the rebirth of me. I realize that to come out as a pagan I will have to receive the scorn from the brainwashed religious doopahs, but I also realize that most people think for themselves and are accepting. In fact, I find most people believe "god" is neither male nor female.


"THE  GODDESS  IS  A  CONCEPT  BY  WHICH  WE MEASURE   OUR JOY" ----John Almada

     So much of the richness of all cultures was sacrificed to this square peg of Christian and Islamic patriarchy fitting into the round holes of nature.

           Know me in my simplicity and awake to my love and justice.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SECTION 3

THE EARTH MOVEMENT

       1-3-1      Called Third Strike

   “Mother Nature is on deck swinging two bats to warm up. Bases loaded ... with The Greens on third, Anarchists on second and people sick of this shit on first. Republicans at the plate.”
 "republicans are batting .133 in two out situations Curt, they need to do something here, they tend to choke...they need to do something, anything... aaaaaand...it's a called third strike. Two outs now. Mother Nature approaches the plate and taps her cleats, NOW SHE’S GOING into her tight stance."
"She doesn't let much get past her Curt."
"No she doesn't Phil, and she is batting .380 in clutch situations. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and behind 9 to 5, the people of earth are counting on her. "
“She doesn’t really want the humans to go extinct.”
“No she doesn’t Phil, This second hurricane across the Southern United States is hopefully another well heeded warning. Hold on, the Anthropocene coach has called a time out and is coming to the mound”
“Curt, if you could with this time out, run down some of her recent big hits”
“Well there was Irma that managed to give both coasts of Florida hurricane strength winds at the same time, for the first time ever. There was Wilma, she hit the west coast at 80 MPH and came out at 90 MPH---the first hurricane to increase strength over land. Then recently we had Florence ready to hit a populated coastal area that collapsed quickly over land but then there was devastating Hurricane Michael maintaining 100MPH winds well into Georgia.
Let’s not forget that Harvey was a wake up call to many, and with Florence’s 30 plus inches of rain, we can anticipate more of these. Huricane Sandy was her message that coastal erosion is going to become severe as oceans rise.”
“It looks like we got a relief pitcher coming out of the bullpen. Coal is hitting the showers after a sloppy performance and it looks like “Toxic” Contamination is coming to the mound.”
 
" Back in her stance, Mother Nature was staring Toxic down with her skank eye, and now, into her stance, she's ready." 
"The crowd seems quiet." 
"Way too quiet Phil, they need to do something. Throw those carpetbagger POS corporate criminals ......and......at least make some noise" 
“There’s not enough chatter out there Curt. I got a feeling that, She’s going for the fences.”
"It's the wind up...aaaand....the pitch.”  
 

1-2-2     BIOREGIONS  


     Here is the world broken up into         
Bio-regions. How will this help us to 
rule ourselves, employ ourselves?

      The natural health of the soil in the United States has been stolen so a couple generations of Americans could overeat.  

The GOP has the beating heart of America in their hand. Or do they? I took a long vacation to see if I could find the heart of America and for the first time, I discovered the Blue Ridge Parkway. 
 I also discovered it isn’t the people, it is the land that is the heart of the United States. The land that has been sliced and sold like cheap luncheon meat.  
We have to seriously protect our wild areas and Appalachia is a great place to start. 
The Blue Ridge Parkway campground I stayed at, was flourishing with life,  arachnids in particular were abounding. If you don’t like spiders crawling everywhere, this is not the place for you. 
Ten minutes after parking, I went to take the Superbrella out of the back of the Jeep to set up camp, and there were spiders everywhere.  The first Daddy Long Legs I'd seen in many years was crawling on the back hatch. Somehow in ten minutes it had crawled up the tire and the side of the vehicle to meet me at eye level on the back door. It reminded me of the early days in my life, and the abundant insect life I remembered. 
A Tussock Moth spent one rainy night on my hat under the Superbrella. A Beetle sat next to me on a towel I had laid on the wet stone bench the next day.    For hours I kept looking next to me at this unknown Beetle as I read a book and there it was, for like, four hours.  Then the insect below hung around with me the next night.
In the 1920’s, when the environmental zeal of the older generation at that time, had ebbed, there was still an effort to open up as many places as possible for recreation. 
The National Park System kept growing, preserving the best of the best. Preservationists continued to battle with the Oil and Gas Industry, the logging conglomerates and the ranchers raising cattle on arid lands because they are thinking about the next one thousand generations.
                                                                                                                                       When everyone makes more, there is more everywhere.   “United we stand together we rule.” and all goods  are valued for what they are worth, not what they could be worth. Food is like a gambling chip to capitalists, speculating like Wall Street with its gambling and its Pork and Soybean futures. 

      The River Trout alone ...  are more important to the permanence of the land than any dam or human manipulation of nature for short term profit.  More important than the humans even. People are temporary, nature not so much and now people are waking up to the fact that the rich got theirs by stealing from the resources needed in the future. They will also see the need to tax this illegitimate wealth.  
                   Nature has been ravaged and despoiled for far too long and Rednecks curse the environmentalists and call them environmental wackos because the golden microphone repeats that phrase ad nauseum and he even claims that there are more trees now than when the Europeans invaded this continent. Conservative sleight of hand fools most people most of the time and they go "yeah, there are more trees now than ever before, stupid environmentalists."
The problem is that the great Prairies which covered one-third of the country five hundred years ago, are now filled with suburbia and its non-native trees.  Invasive Bradford Pears and many other exotics with no wildlife value. The Short and Tallgrass Prairies were two important bioregions for hundreds of thousands of years and unfortunately, less than 5% of it remains.  
You know the narrative. We are taught about ingenious new plows and "sodbusters". back to Rush Limbaugh. In addition to the loss of the praroes and non-native treeshe golden microphone also equates one 8 inch sapling in a Georgia Pacific tree farm to a 200 foot Sitka Spruce in the Tongass National Forest. Forgotten are all the great trees sawn down a long time ago when all the forests were ancient forests. The forests in the entire state of Connecticut were cut down by the charcoal industry in the mid-1800’s.
The mountain people were great hunters and Phil Robertson claims to own them. The gentle giant of the south, the Indigo snake, was portrayed as a dangerous monster. To a rattlesnake nestling perhaps, as the Indigo Snake is one of the few snakes that will go into a rattlesnake nest for its breakfast. Now that’s badass. 
I remember a book on reptiles I was reading as a kid, and the Indigo Snake was depicted as this scary, black, eight-foot colossus you might find hiding in the shed one day! Quite prepared to eat you alive. 

          All these NGO’s( non-governmental organizations) are nice, but there is a lot to consider with NGB’s.  (Non-governmental bioregions). Farmers and growers would become important again and they will regain the voice they lost during the Industrial Revolution.   There are myths and mistruths that get are there to subtly fool you.  “Small farms could never feed the world” you are told over and over in trade magazines.  
You can reply with “Agribusiness has stripped 50% of the topsoil in the United States, how do you plan to grow anything when there is none left? "  Wooosh we become the Moon.

The Appalachians were created by the first great tectonic disruption of activity several hundred million years ago. What I discovered this year, was that they are still full of life 600 million years later. Sitting at my stone table a tiny bird started feeding nearby and soon ten others joined her and I got to thinking about climate change and still wondering how will the birds survive?
I try to make people comprehend how fragile the existence of the small birds is. When I’m trying to convince someone to use native plants in their yard I tell the story of the little four-ounce bird that has already flown from South America and arrives in Indian River County, Florida. She flits here and there and finds no fruit or seeds in one yard and goes to the next---same thing.  It starves in this totally fake landscape that overpaid landscape architects design.
The heart of America isn’t the people because our lives are short compared to a giant watershed or a forest.  People 1000 years from now will still need an intact environment, they’ll want clean and clear running streams to catch trout.  Clean aquifers below ground. 
Then one day Jeb was shootin’ at some food and up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude. Southerners like to hunt for their food as did the Native Americans, but with a paucity of wildlife these days, they end up shooting squirrels or whatever else is left in a damaged ecosystem.
This is when I wonder if the heat and humidity of the south affects their brains. They vote for the people who have profited from destroying the streams and forests. The carpetbaggers today trying to steal the one thing they have left --- their vote The Native Americans were forcefully moved to the driest, most desolate western lands. Lands the ranchers didn’t want. Return their eastern hunting grounds and let them steward some new National Parks.
Keep in mind that it’s the birds that will carry seeds and moss and fish eggs northward in a rapidly warming world.

 BOOK 2    UNITED SCAPES

SECTION 4    LIBERTY IS THE VANGUARD

2-4-1     FRAMING YOUR OWN NARRATIVE 


Writing prompt, I am from 


 

I am from flooded rivers at my fence and fallout from nuclear bomb tests. I am from black and white TV and from a bigotry banned home. I am from the Great Elm and the Nathaniel Foote statue at the foot of the Town Green. Fourth of July horses running up the steps and Thanksgiving smells at Grandmas house.

 

I am From Kitt Peak and Cat Mountain. Hiding from hailstones behind a Saguaro and looking uphill at a herd of Peccary's.     

Peaches in the desert and Peaches at Cape Cod. Peaches in Central Florida where they never grew before and dead squirrels and live snakes falling out of trees.

 Confidentiality agreements and bankrupt developers. Eucalyptus became Simpson Stopper.

I am from hobos at the train station and hopping the train to get to Mickeys Restaurant.

I am from outhouses that became Condominiums. Skating under the interstate highway during the coldest winters. Ice bombs on trains and rocks in my eye and head.  Running from the police and losing a bicycle in the Connecticut River. 

 

Tommy's friend drowned at Mill Woods and ten years later we toasted him in the park nearby.  I am from vodka blackouts and dragging gasoline station signs in the road and driving the wrong way on highway 84 and picking up a confused hitchhiker. We turned around and drove him to his exit.

I am from ill-fitting poor people skates and rutted driveways. Film tricks with 8MM movies and monster movies shown in school. I am from (censored) and drinking stolen priest wine.

Sunsets in three corners and interrupted acid mowing. Illusions of prosperity and the Independent Majority Party. Pagan Space Yahoo Answers, Witchvox, Treebord and Greenhammer.

Dogs gone mad with diabetes and jumping through windows. Razor blade fights with cats. I am from appreciating boy scouts only as an adult.


 

Driving a bicycle drunk downtown to get home, and cycling 60 miles to the Connecticut Shore. Rain or shine 10 miles to the food co-op and ten miles back with the goods. I am from Black Mountain, Beaver Brook and Cotton Hollow.  Bums at dawn and executives on break. Shiny city slicker elevators and flatbeds.  

I am from the Marian Cult and French slang. Smoking in church and looking out the cellar window as Bridey walked by and the snow piled in drifts. Manly florists and feminine truck drivers.

Pulling the magic down from the air and thrill bumps at the end of Close To the Edge. Druids and Witches and unbridled cultural appropriation. 
         Chills in the graveyard and a mason by trade, born 1666. Finding a bloody ancient dagger with my cousin and leaving it there. Falling in unfinished houses and wheelies on an unbuilt interstate. Gripping girders, hitting one over the fence. 

I am from running right through people and looking past others. Jumping off the roof and climbing 60 feet up the Greer's Pine. Richie slapping frogs on concrete and praying when the bad boys tried to drown a cat.

Planting trees for uncertain futures and promoting shrubs and bird gardens. Butterflies as food and Indigo Snakes in my arms. Dead snakes and diapers at the mall.

         I am from Roger Maris and Fran Tarkenton. Concussions and crawling home. Rainbow spokes and Jupiter with my dad. Jupiter much later from Holst. I am from Hail to the Hammer and Tarkus. The Blue Beats and Cry for a Shadow. Elegy and energy. Snow boarding with art class easels and fireworks with cigars.

       My own brown scapula and blessed throats. A John Paul confirmation and Uncle Joe jettisoning bigotry after church. Forceful conversion was slapped upside the head, and refusing to work during the blizzard of ‘78 was a lesson on lessening coercion in my life. They needed a fourth for cards since it was certain there was not going to be any school any time soon. They were stuck there for two days

       I have skied from a rope tied to a car on snow covered roads. Drove a go kart with no brakes. Reached 47MPH on a bicycle.  Threw dirt bombs but didn’t play “Army” with the boys. Used unsafe bicycle jumps at Kevins and Carlin. Three on a bicycle, and an accident at Mill Woods. Trying to make swings flip over. Found a boat to go fishing in flood waters. Broke windows at the Foundry and the abandoned Railway station.

         Jumped off the elementary school roof to run from Mrs. Walters. Played in abandoned buildings. Walked across Middletown Avenue on the Rt 91 girders and almost fell off laughing at how shocked people were. Threw chunky iceballs on the train and got chased by the police.

         Tried to cook blackberries on the railroad tracks and burnt all the dry grass around the distribution center and ended up with the fire chief talking to my parents. Crawled halfway across the Connecticut River catwalk and spit on the Dolly Madison. When Bruce moved, I became the wheelie king.

             Stole bowling shoes on the Bicentennial and got arrested for 4th degree larceny. Yesterday was dads birthday, he would have been 92 and pretty feeble. Hope him and Mom are okay. Heaven to him would be to join a good combo. Or maybe a gang of ukulele players.


 At 13, Pete introduced me to Time Magazine which expanded my view out into the world. The rules of the church were hysterically irrelevant. The real world was merely silly. How were women second class citizens; they were the smart ones?

Weights, baseballs, insecurities, forced and boring education; midget football, rainy Saturdays and afternoon movies. Laughing at the boy scouts and their silly para-military uniforms while we were throwing chestnuts at each other’s heads. Jumping on the hay wagon for a gag and found ourselves going 30 MPH down Middletown Avenue … too scared to jump off.

Riding our bicycles behind the annual Paul Reveres ride or whatever it was on the fourth of July. First time this suburban boy saw a large animal other than a cow take a shit. Lifted its tail and it’s a visual I can’t unsee. We had no pets, and I never saw nothing like that at the Bronx Zoo. The horse kept on down to Broad St and the amazing thing was when the post rider and the horse climbed up the steps of a house, went in, and had a beer. Wow! That was a pretty cool tradition. Then over to the Historical Museum and corny as it may have seemed, the Fife and Drum were kicking.

I don’t think I saw a gun till I was out of school. We broke our necks every day in one way or another, but Wethersfield was a damn safe city. I saw the conversion of the farming community into a suburb. There was Ollie, smelling like shit all the time, except when I went collecting on Friday night after he’d had his weekly shower. He had about six cows and near the end, his barn began leaning pretty bad.

When Bruce the wheelie king became an adult, he lived in Freddys barn and we’d party our ass off. Freddys parents were blind and nearly deaf and never knew we were going there at 1:00 in the morning to bring Bruce a buzz and to get loud.

The next year I lived myself on the weekends in a barn. I agreed to clean out the barn so I could live there on weekends. Steve the boy was too busy with his slut girlfriend to hang out, though there was some authentic Polish breakfasts I got to partake in with his mother. He’d be hungover with four hours of sleep under his belt and I’d be all perky from sleeping on hay and hiking down the railroad tracks. It was like a house from 1825 or something, one of the newer historical houses. The barn I’m guessing was 75 years old at least.

Five years previous I was recalling Ollie and his barn. Another indelible image is when Ollie paid me one freezing Saturday afternoon and a globous frozen snot looking like a stalactite, hung off his nose. He must have been 80 and someone finally got him to quit. Maybe he worked off the books and had no social security. With his barn leaning dangerously, he disappeared from the scene.

To the north on Middletown Avenue, the Clarks had cows. They retired them a few years before Ollie did and we played baseball in their field there. Me and the Middletown Avenue gang played at the Green and mostly Adams field. The games in the Clarks cow pasture included the girls. One of the best interactions of a group of people. Never a fight, no boy girl tension because from us quiet guys, the girls got total respect. Not much toxic masculinity in our direct neighborhood.

Maybe I was a nerd. Super Geek George was a good friend and one of the few other people who were making movies and showing them at school. He was on the AV squad and was far more, technical than us but when he went to make a big project about the Battle of Tours, this mini-neighborhood congealed.  It was the closest we came to serious set design and and quality soundWe used real horses and wouldn’t I love to see that flick again.

The Clarks had one cow left because there would occasionally be a cow pie that had to be avoided “second base..ewww,” and there were some old hard ones from previous months still in the field.

I love this picture of the 1955 Flood..




This area was also a cow pasture and was owned by Red Schumann who gave up his cows before Ollie and The Clarks. The picture shows how it began as a grassland in 1955, and by 1965, the field was a mass of large shrubs and small trees when I became old enough to play in the woods. There was a Pear Tree I remember most of all. Tough hard Pears that never seemed to ripen. They were Wild Pears and now Pears from subsidized mega farms all look and taste the same. The basis of my, “what have we lost” theme.

I hadn’t thought about the field behind the house in a big way for a long time. Suddenly tonight I was 12 again and standing around looking at the various plants. Almost tears in my eyes. What else was there: blackberries, Dogwoods and oh yeah 12 Yellow Jacket stings. Learned to watch where I walked.

My working life. Ten years old and we lived on our bicycles. It was 1964 and the Greatest Generation thought nothing of throwing their garbage out the window. You literally saw napkins and other shit thrown out of car windows as people drove by. In this accumulation, however, there were 2 and 5 cent returnables.  So off we’d go with our 42 cents worth of bottlesto buy some soda and candy at Dougherty Drugs.

But I wanted more. I wanted to accumulate assets. So when I was 11, I got a Hartford Times paper route. The afternoon paper which I delivered for a year. Then after missing out on playing football and baseball with the boys after school, I decided to get a morning paper route and called the Hartford Courant (est. 1764 “older than the nation, newer than the news”.)

#406 on the Wethersfield Green was available and Gorski trained me for 3 days and I was on my way. When I was 16, I added #420 which was the route on my street, Middletown Avenue.

With both, I had about 70 daily customers and over a hundred Sunday papers in total. I ended up with Dads Caprice Station wagon in 1970 and this enabled me to go to Dunkin Donuts after work after delivering 800 pounds of newspapers.

I graduated high school and we moved shortly afterwards to Bloomfield. I respect my mom and dad, in retrospect, for trusting my judgement the summer after graduation when I wanted to get a motorcycle. I tried Community College and appreciated how much more interesting it was. I often drove my Suzuki 250 for two hours before class to explore the back roads and the October foliage before class.

Then I realized that a career in bookkeeping and accounting wasn’t what I wanted to do with my adult life. Rich Carling, our buddy, was killed riding his motorcycle and when it came time to renew the insurance and do some repairs, I quit the motorcycle and converted to a ten speed after putting 16,000 miles on My Suzuki named Wally.

I would routinely ride from North Bloomfield to the Wethersfield Green on the ten speed. Taking the shortest route possible it was 15 miles in about and hour and a quarter whereas it was 30 minutes and 25 miles by car.

There was 15 year old sophomore Joe Volvo. who had a full beard and looked 25 so he bought us beer during Senior year which was my first year with intoxicants. Then when we graduated, there was the perfect storm. The voting age was lowered to 18 in 1972 when I turned 18. Connecticut thought that the drinking age should be lowered to 18 and that was passed. The Blue State realizing that if you go to war and you vote and are out of school, why the hell not have a toddy now and then.


Alice Coopers “I’m 18” was out in 1972 and really we had had enough of school by the end of senior year and we sang Schools Out as we fled the scene of the unspeakable brainwashing of a stultifying education.

Me and other Wethersfielders would plow through the corn fields in the meadow (fuck their monocultural F1 hybrids.) The Suzuki had highway speed but a thick metal shield under the motor for dirt bike purposes, and it had raised pipes for sharp turns and mud bogging. I loved it and loved those times of unexpected blessings.

But then Ritchie died on his motorcycle and I converted to the ten speed. Thank goodness  I gave up the mortorcycle because as a reckless 18 year  old I would take my classes at Manchester Community then get on the interstate to get back to Bloomfield. I learned if I followed in the wake of tractor trailers it was much warmer. Being a statistics freak I noted that the lowest temperature I drove in was 14 degrees. No smart phones, in the old days we use something we called an outdoor thermometer.

1973 “How are you going to get to school when it starts up again next semester”

“I quit.”

My Uncle Gid had gotten my dad a job when we moved to Bloomfield and dad got me a part time job at Vincent School. Cold, snowy, it didn’t matter, I got there on the bicycle. Then I applied for a full time job that came up at the new Bloomfield Middle School. I cleaned up the fifth grade wing and was not disillusioned I was a janitor while my friends went to Boston so they could get the piece of paper that said they were smarter and more qualified as workers and therefore entitled to more money.

 Broke today because I thought the system would have crashed by now and why I never bought into it. I don’t regret it and came to the conclusion that this myriad mix of experiences would never have happened without being free of the capitalist system. Glad to have not bought into all of itmaking every day challenging at  66. 

The summer of ’73 and school was out. The big cleanup for the janitors but at least we could work the daytime shift for a couple of months. Strip and re-wax the floors. I was “the mouse” because I was the only one thin and agile enough to clean out under the giant gym bleachers. Also I was the one who climbed the 24 foot ladder to clean all the asbestos dust off the top of the fluorescent lights in the large Shop Class room.

I worked with skinny white Larry who had his own part of the Middle School Complex. I was in the 500 wing and Bob Jones was in the 600 Wing. He would scratch his back on the door frame like a Bear and I got to hear every joke of the previous 30 years. Black Larry was in 700 and he had a handicapped daughter. He got mad at me one day when I made a dumb comment about cripples. Mario was the boss and a total guinea. He talked about his weiner like it was a cartoon character or something.

After work I went to visit the other young man I worked with the summer of ‘73. Forget his name but he was a cool guy from New Jersey and it was a second floor room. He didn’t seem worried about the cannabis smell, “‘ol Mr Lynch don’t care as long as you pay the rent.” In August he told me that he had to get back to Jersey and I got the notion that 75 bucks for rent was easily handled since I made 400 a month. The minimum wage was $?.?? at that time.

Conveniently, I got switched to the second shift Junior High job which was right down the street and though I had gotten the black Econoline Van, I rode the bicycle. When the cream puff day shift job came up at an elementary school like my dad had, I lost it to Adinolfi. I technically had more time I was assured, and I still have the letter in my “scrapbook” which indicated he had a family and needed the cushy job more than I did.

Honestly, as I thought about it, I can’t remember the sequence of which schools I was a janitor from 1973-1978. High School 75-76. I met Lori with an I and used to get high with yellow eyed Dewitt. “You got?” I think it was the Middle School that was last. This is why I’m writing shit down. In case I’m stuck getting old and feeble, at least I’ll have something to read.

At the Middle School I would put a card or something in the door so I could get back in and would sneak over to Cliff’s house down the street to get high. Neighbors across the way Norm and JoAnne were pretty hip New Yorkers and I met their friend Sherry in 1977, and after a 6 month stint back with my parents I moved to East Granby with her and Cheryl and Eddie and Carls sister.

We had an epic band with Paula the flute player and Bernie on drums and Cliff on folk guitar, me on bass and an amazing vocalist who sounded just like Lee Morse. We played a gig at Trinity College, but that band broke up after the gig we practiced three months for and so Carl joined Bernie and I and we became a bit more metal doing songs like Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath. Bernie saved a recording of it.

So losing the plum job to Adinolfi nudged me into thinking more seriously about the vacation in Tucson. Maybe there was opportunity there. The union fracas with the town of Bloomfield was interesting but when new guys got hired they started at 132 dollars a week, and there I was still making only 125 a week after like two years.

Just so much bullshit, I had enough. Connecticut’s economy was clotted with hierarchy, nepotism and entrenched favoritism and I had had enough of how crowded the state was.

Hold the phone. I just checked on what the minimum wage was during those years. It was $2.65 in 78 and $2.90 in ’79. So off we went to Tucson, the Three Musketeers. My first job was at the Triple T Truck stop on Interstate 10. Like a diner, I don’t have many memories of that other than the Scorpion I found behind the paper box and mopping the floors and observing some skeevy nightlife. Look at me I’m at an old style diner on RT 10 in the middle of the night! This is why you have to let it go sometimes and try something new.

The place reminded me of the diners on the Berlin Turnpike back home, but more oriented to long distance truck travel.

Then I got hired on with Larry Sadowski doing third shift janitorial work at Kings Tables and Village Pizza. He was a mean bastard to his kids and wife but respected my effort, while keeping me productive and on my toes. One day we had a bit of a philosophical talk and he said I was not on a career path and asked what I really wanted to do. Tom and I did a lot of gardening on our patch at Flying A on the west side of town and suddenly I found myself recalling my dads influence with gardening via osmosis.

I’d like to do gardening I told him in 1980 and a month or two later he got me the garden maintenance work at the Kings Table we were working at. I learned about how Barrel Cactus’ grew towards the Sun and I had to replant a bunch of them so they could be better seen out of the window of the restaurant.

Larry lost the Village Pizza account and laid me off but with that gardening experience on my resume, I parleyed a job with a landscape company. Not sure if I qualified for unemployment at that point but the state unemployment service had a most excellent way of listing jobs and soon I got on with Casa Verde Landscaping. That was a great crew with Rick and some others and John Bloom the blonde surfer dude boss from California found his little niche of profit in Tucson. We all got high and also did the very best accounts in town as it turned out.

Meanwhile Sherry got laid off and while looking for a job we came across the caretaker positions at the Kingston Ranch. We applied, what did we have to lose? Beating 125 other applicants we moved to a 40 acre ranch and lived in a converted tack room which was quite luxurious. At Casa Verde my gardening skills had served me well and I was promoted to my own gig at Park Mall as the indoor and outdoor gardener. No more singing “Tube Steak Boogie” with the boys as we went to the next job but some work I could really sink my teeth into. 520 sprinklers heads in an area so vast I had to use a bicycle to get to the stations I turned on.




So in 81-83 I had the Park Mall gig and the outdoor work at the Kingston Ranch working about 50 hours a week in the desert sun and life couldn’t be sweeter. The only thing between us and the 8000 ft plus Catalina Mountains was Paul McCartneys house. A 40 foot by 8 foot pool kept us cool in the , ummerThen the Mall job was underbid, and I was looking for work and got hired on by Jeff as an electricians helper. When I say I talked to a lot of people in my life, I mean to say we mingled with other contractors and ate lunch together, as just one example.

Electrical work was interesting running wire in a bunch of different kind of buildings and I really got to understand how houses and housing complexes are built. Even rewired a college dorm which I remember well.

Alas, we became bored with Arizona, despite having seen and experienced a whole new world in those six years, but still yearned to be New Englanders again. I was once again the scout looking for a place to live while living at Norm and Joannes. They had gone off for a month somewhere and it was just me and Freddy the dog for three weeks then the cats came in on an airplane.

Looking for a New Englandy place to live I went to the Boston area first. I got pulled over by a cop trying to find my way around a tight little neighborhood in Boston in my search for a home and the only way out was going the wrong way on a one way street… and there’s a cop. I talked my way out of it and went on for a quieter town between there and Salem.

Then I realized that maybe Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were far from the people we knew, and Enfield Connecticut was quite New Englandy in its own way with its old houses and farm stands. At the end of April I had been at Norms for two weeks. They spent a month or something in Cape Cod and I was house sitting which, all in all, was a pretty cool transition to New England. Taking care of Freddy the dog and shepherding the arrival of Dickens and Rocky, our cats.


I applied at Tarnow Nursery which was down the road about a half a mile and got a job. Minimum wage had risen to $3.35 an hour and despite a pretty good horticultural resume by this point, I started at $3.50. Owner John was a well known skinflint as I found out from his nieces Nancy and Susan who had set up the nursery the previous fall and ran the place. He barely paid them 4 an hour to run the place, and they were kin.

There’s that pattern emerging that most guys wanted to be millionaires. The nursery owner probably became a millionaire eventually, on the backs of 100, mostly dedicated young people of course. As did Tom Collins in later years with lots of turnover and probably 1000 employees at Captain Hirams. As did the owners of Rock City leaving 500 disgruntled employees in their wake at least.

Joe from Springfield came along at Tarnow Nursery and he was a young, but old looking, college grad and he became the boss and Susan and Nancy went back to the main store to work, except weekends when Joe was off, and they were the bosses. We spent a lot of time talking on the weekends and there was quite a bunch of interesting kids that came through that summer. That was a good crew.

At 32, I was the oldest at the jobsite and should have been well on my way to a capitalist career and accumulating assets and investing for retirement, but I wasn’t buying into this system. I had learned quite a bit about plants the previous four years with the mall and caretaker job, and I quickly learned about Connecticuts favorite plants since I'd previously lived there for 23 years.

I thought I had quite a good sales approach and we were taught to handle two customers and go between them while, you know, keeping the elbows and ankles flying when Joe was there. I started by being a loader and met many of the Enfield people who frequented the store who lauded the variety of the plants. This was no vegetable stand with plants, it was a slick professionalism that most people like and Tarnows quickly became Enfields favorite nursery.

The end of the summer came, and it was pumpkins and fall decorations and selling the fall planting concept. The kids went back to college and I became the main sales person (except when the college edumacated Joe and that lazy guinea schlub from the Main store worked there). This other guy was lazy as fuck and immediately had an effect on productivity. By November Michelle ran the Christmas shop and I was the everything else person. She was sharp and knew how to please the little old ladies buying Christmas fluff.

So my first winter since 1977-8 was set to arrive. We came back to experience the seasons, right? My partner and I had moved to the Thompsonville section of Enfield and it was like a slice of Boston, a dose of “Southy” that had dropped down in the Connecticut River Valley. There was Ragnos where they served the food I had missed out in Arizona. A little further away was the best Polish Deli I had ever hoid. Our daughter was born and then baptized at the very old church down the street. A little further on, a Norman Rockwell Christmas emerged at Freshwater Pond when the ice froze. There was talk of the giant mill being converted into condos.  

It was exciting and I realized at this point that I had truly created my own path. My peers were buying houses and working in cubicles but I decided to carve my own path. I was creating my own horticultural college experience in a pull up your bootstraps way. There was Tiny’s Little criminal enterprise next door in a pool hall and a host of characters living in 8 rentals in two large houses. Add loose soap opera here.

I bought some really choice little evergreens and had planted them on the side of the house. Rocky and Dickens would run up the front steps to come in because the back steps were missing. I was planting in this grey dust they called soil and people were digging it. “Looks good” said local murderer Wilmer Paradise.

My partner was working downtown and I went to the local employment agency to find another job when I got laid off after Christmas. When you make peanuts, the unemployment was very minimal and a couple weeks before Valentines day I got a job with a wholesale Greenhouse.

Former Ball Seed Vice President Peter Stanley was one of the most manic people I’d ever met. He had reconstructed two 440 foot greenhouses and was striking out on his own with his patented concept called Jet Plugs. Instead of the usual 75 cent plugs these were much smaller and only about 35 cents if I recall, so that was 40 cents a plant profit. I learned the long road from producer to purchaser. One day running between greenhouses I caught the top of my head on a round eyehook. Shouldn’t tear my head open since it wasn’t sharp in any way but that was a trip to the emergency clinic and 13 stitches. My nickname was Zipperhead for a while.

So there I was off to a new job in early February with the temperature around 10 degrees and a dry wicked wind was blowing so it felt like it was well below zero and I was reminded of one of the reasons I moved to Arizona. It was COLD! Everything was frozen and the loading dock area looked to be abandoned with 4’x4’ flattened boxes blowing around and other litter was being blown around. I was looking for a job here? It looked like a disaster area.

Peter was short on employees and this was his problem. So he hired me on at $4.25 an hour which was 25% more than I was making at Tarnow Nursery. An employee was walkie talkied to come and give me an orientation. She was one of those fantasy Nordic women who cursed very fluently. We got on pretty good, I was always monogamous, so there was never sexual tension with the female co-workers.


In the world of capitalism, men are sheltered from the minorities and they were the bosses of the women and this is why so much sexism remains. At the Mall job in Tucson I had lunch on the regular with the three prettiest women in the whole place. You treat a woman like a dude and they respond in kind. At the mall I also talked with dozens of the employees from every demographic. I reject the notion that I “don’t know how to communicate”.  I've heard that plenty of times but I still believe my own thoughtsAt Tarnow Nursery I met practically everyone in town who came to check out the place. I had the gift of gab when I was younger.

I don’t remember the flaxen haired Valkyries name but she walked me to the first Greenhouse and it was a moment like no other. People with glasses know how they fog up in changing conditions. Ten below zero with a wicked wind chill and it was like Dorothy opening the door to the colors of Oz.

Tropical plants as far as the eye could see and a temperature to match. Plants poised for the Valentines Day sales. Here was a new experience to jump into, fer sure. Many tales I will relate later and just one to keep the flow. Bosses such as Jim the asshole came along and Dwight from out of state who was a hired gun and a spectacular dude. No college for him either and he was older than me and was also into a wide variety of job experiences. He and his friend from Pittsburgh completely refurbished the greenhouses.

When all was said and done, our little family moved to the field office of Consolidated Cigar that Dwight and Marian had lived in. There was always a boss over me and they all got fired or quit and I was a constant for Stanley Greenhouses and now lived across the street in the cutest little white house you ever saw.

Summer of 86 with my first biological child was a fun little baby and it was an exciting time. I believe the wife quit her job to be a mommy since I was putting in 60 hours a week and making enough. A typical day would have me at 7:00 walking over to begin venting around 15,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse.

By then the Weather Channel had become the bomb, and I would vent accordingly, depending on that days conditions. Rolling carts waited on the very large loading dock and sometimes I took a smaller truck and loaded from the greenhouse. Then I would drive and deliver for ten hours going to Mattapan or Poughkeepsie or over Mt Adams. I’d come back and close the vents to keep the greenhouses at 75 degrees, then walk home after a 13 hour day. But it was interesting, you know. I set up plant displays at BJ’s Wholesale and delivered to every Paperama in southern New England out to the Hudson in New York.

Work hard and be rewarded was the message of my youth but then I learned from a friend that I had to work smart. That made sense. But did it mean conniving to scratch and claw my way above other employees? Yes it did. The secret to the American Dream, if you wanted financial security you needed to be the boss. To be able to manipulate people to work harder than they should without because we aren’t machines. Squeezing productivity from underpaid employees was never a lure to me.

The boss at Walmart making sure no one talks to each other. The warehouse manager not caring about workers injuries. The head nurse that all the CNA’s hate. My philosophy is that I don’t like being bossed and I don’t like BEING the boss.  

So here I was with caretaking experience, a difficult mall gardening job that included irrigation work, and then some electrical work. A nursery job and greenhouse experience. I was training myself in Horticulture. So, by 1987 Peter ratcheted down his business because his mercurial bossmanship just wasn’t making the money he expected, although of course he blamed the employees.

He even had me set up a retail shop the spring after Dwight left and people recognized me from Tarnows. Then there were the BJ Wholesale sites where I set up the indoor displays and returned weekly to replace plants in ‘86. I even drove to Syracuse a couple of times.

I reckon it was the summer of 87 and I decided I needed indoor plant experience on my resume. The good thing about interior plantwork was that it was a way to work through a New England winter. I spent nine months at Plantations who had some very professional training. I forgot how I left that job.

Then there was the Plantscape job where I was the only dude. When they went big on a pink and black theme with uniforms and stickers and what all else, I found it amusing and they found a way to frame and fire me.

In spring of ’88 I got a job with probably one of the best crews ever. There was the boss, another Lori with an I, who was a dairy farmers daughter. She had grown up with machines and tractors and got the notion to start a landscaping business. Dwarf Evergreens were trending and the plant selection was minty and the boss was calm and organized.

There was Bob the biker. A big bear of a guy with a big beard that the boss described as more a Teddy Bear than a Grizzly. There was Randy the Redneck and there were many interesting discussions altogether between all of us. A big gun enthusiast and one of the first Preppers I ever met. He had enough food for a year at least and even an underground gasoline tank. Randy and his Super Swampers were such a caricature.



Armageddon happens and people are hungry roaming the land for food and shelter We asked him what he would do if dozens of hungry people and their children were walking up his driveway looking for assistance. His answer was that he would “mow them down like zombies.” Then there was Mike Two Hawks, who said he was derided as “only” a quarter blood Mohawk by his peers, but who seemed to be fully authentic. He taught me ceremony and quite a bit else though he was younger.

There were always side jobs such as Tony and “big boobs” Barbara who often wore a sweatshirt that asked, where did you get those tomatoes with two big tomatoes on the front. There was Dat Shenoy and his family. He was a tech dude who quit the biz and wanted to be a landlord so he would be buying houses and I would renovate the landscaping and help him clean and paint the indoors. I’ve like Painting ever since.

I don’t know what years those were with Dat and his lovely family and where they fit in with all those other Connecticut jobs I had, but it was certain that no one could cite my lack of hustle. A 50 hour week was quite normal for me in the 80’s. I had packed in quite a bit of training in horticulture and with Lori I had the classic experience of driving a 1949 Ford tractor down the state road creating a traffic jam.

With my greenhouse experience I stayed on with the landscaperwhen it got too cold to plant Junipers in the frozen ground. There was Joe Gidvelas with his mafioso persona. He cursed all the time and was very gruff, except when he was planting tissue culture jet plugs and he treated those like newborn babies.

In ’89 we got an offer to come to Florida to be manipulated by my in-laws who felt a need to manipulate our life when we got there. My dad drove my rusted pickup and I drove a Hertz rental truck like the ones Stanleys had and my dad drove my Datsun King Cab. Without cell phones and global positioning satellites, we always had a place where we would meet if we got separated. This was important going on the six lane I-295 around Washington DC.

I felt pretty confident and adaptable in a new state and got a job within two weeks while wifey got depressed after not finding weed or a job after two and a half months. Then she met my soon to be ex second wife and they ran a group home for retarded people and we were finally acclimated.

I got a job at Atlantic View, a seven story condo with ocean views. Well one day the boss was caught smoking crack on the fifth floor. He got fired and my New Age buddy Dave was suddenly boss. Turnover such as it is in Arizona and Florida, Dave was funny and smart but definitely suffered from IED. Intermittent explosive disorder. He ended up getting fired too and there I was two months in Florida and I became the boss.

South American investors with alleged old school drug gang connections, it was reputed they were laundering money. Fred Stresau had done the landscape design and I learned he was a bestselling author. He wrote “Florida, My Eden” which remained the landscape bible through the nineties for many in Florida. He had died before the project was finished and I never met him, but Fred Stresau Jr. visited the site, and was such a dick.

 

 

            The project manager was also a dick. A developers hired gun he fucked with everybody but respected me for some reason. On December 24th, one of the worst freezes in decades was predicted for all of Florida. It snowed on Christmas Day in Titusville we found out and even though I had a difficult time whipping the boys to be 100% productive, arms and elbows flying, I negotiated with them constantly to increase their productivity.

There was nothing we could do to protect the 70 Coconut Palms out by the street but we had many plants in pots that weren’t going to get planted and were bound to be frozen by this freeze. This was one of those worker moments when the workers grabbed the initiative. Paul the pot dealer and a seriously redneck dude from West Virginia and the guy that looked like Jesus. A 6’4” Jesus. All great sincere men who respected each other and they got the notion to build a greenhouse.

 “Are you kidding” the developer said but we didn’t need to buy a thing. They made a 15 by 10 foot greenhouse to house the more rare material.  I planted tree seeds I had ordered from catalogs in 89 I had hoped to grow in Florida. I forgot how we heated it but they built the entire thing from what was in the dumpsters. Plastic and wood, it was a work of genius with this incredible cold front headed our way. Clamps and nails from home, everything survived, and my seeds even germinated. Mesquite Palo Verde Acacias from around the world, Poinciana and others. What didn’t fit in the greenhouse we placed next to it where it was warmer.  Our fifth guy, a young troublemaker but a good egg, didn’t have anything to do at xmas so he came in checked on the heater.

By February or March, I got tired of the fancy condo landscaping and so I quit and got hired by Biogreen. He had an interesting pamphlet on his methods that I still have. Feather and Blood Meal. Natural fertilizing materials I’ll discuss later. Azalea Lane Apts with his much older but foxy girlfriend. His scattershot methods became scatterbrained and it was the Organic experience I needed to get back to my roots and I went into full research mode about Florida plants though I ended up getting laid off .


On May 30 1990 I got hired on to Orchid Island and worked there till June 2001. More horticultural things than I can encapsulate happened, and these issues will blow up this story later.

By the spring of ’01 my ankles and arms were on the verge of total spasm after five years of mowing greens and heavy landscaping with a chain saw and my tractor and trailer. The knee problem had healed in large part to Doctor Dave who lived in Orchid Island. But then one day after 5 years of professional greens mowing, I was going to mow the practice putting green and when I brought the gate down from the trailer my back went into total breakdown. So much pain I had to sit on the ground and wait for help. My strong back was ready to snap. I had had enough precision mowing for one lifetime.

I had been in discussion with Rick about my pending departure at Orchid Island and he promised me 15 hours. So I was paid for like six more weeks and after six weeks of physical therapy I quit. Take this job and recycle it elsewhere. With my ten years I had just qualified for three weeks vacation and was making almost 11 an hour which only long term help earned. 22,600 a year. Kind of a lot for me and why would I risk all this wifey asked.

I already had Delval and three other side jobs and Ricks 15 hours and the Flower Girl started getting me work and I ended up making 22,600 in ’01 and ’02 and like to feel I didn’t miss a beat going to self-employment. Support instead of doubts would have helped, but I persisted.

I picked up Crawfords at Orchid and Reynolds too and then the funny dude who lived between them. Orchid customers like that I could talk greens or fairways and the short holes on #8 and #15. I explained to them some of the environmental issues I’d failed to get implemented in my discussions with management.

I said that the invasive pest plant Brazilian Pepper needed to be removed and native plants put in their place. I tried to promote these mainstream environmental standards but couldn’t make a dent with the profit machine.

Meanwhile the children are 19, 18, 16, 12, and 6 in 2002. Three teens, Master Gardener volunteer and Tree Board Advisor, while planting small plants for future growth in the yard. The ones from the rare fruit council seemed to be doing great at that point.  

Needless to say, maintaining a customer base for twenty years leads to a lot of communicating. More so than working with the grumpy nurse demographic, I’d guess.

I AM FROM Hartford Hospital and Pepe’s Lincoln and learning how to go to school in miserable conditions and how there had to be something better than wet galoshes for the foul weather. Taking naps in first grade and peeing my pants in second grade. Staying in class through lunch that day and I was driven home by the principal since mom had no license.

Another day that I got driven home was when I fell flat into a big puddle at lunch break outside in our play area on the pavement. Completely wet, but not embarrassed, they called my mother who was one of the few people in town that didn’t drive. Colleen and Paula in fifth grade made me realize love was in the air. Mr Domino was a male influence finally as my sixth grade teacher. Dad seemed great, both parents were always busy but a boy needs positive male influence. Girls need mentors too I’m sure.

Too many rural kids are raised with killing things and learning boys will be boys and that misbehavior can be excused. The dude who brought me my bundle of papers at 430 in the morning was pretty cool and sometimes I’d get out there early enough to see him and have a little chat. Then teenhood came along and it became about sports and being a feral child on my bicycle.

 

Adult world stuff I remember was the trouble Auntie had with Uncle Eddie who beat her with a phone in one cruel incident and was finally forced out. This was racist Joe’s son and my cousin Dennis’ dad.  Two cousins near my age, they showed me different things like abandoned buildings and driving a go-kart on the sidewalk along route 3. With no brakes. Thrills that parents would find unsafe today.

Favorite hiking places. Back yard Meadows. Bloomfield tracks and Pennwood. Eagle Cloud Mountain. Somewhere southwest Of Tucson. Coronado National Forest. Rt 5, Hazardville Freshwater Creek watershed. Sebastian Greens and the Stormwater Park.

The Portuguese side always had good suppers and a bathroom with all the fairies wallpapered with an aqua blue background. Another younger cousin was retarded but he ended up working at Tony’s corner market. He died at 18 from complications with his brain problem that sounds like encephalitis. He greatly benefitted with Governor Dempseys programs.

I like to say I don’t like being bossed and I don’t like being the boss. So by the age of twenty I was done with mom controlling me and she told me I was going to be a pall bearer for Daves funeral. Not really feeling grief for my dead cousin or even knowing what a pall bearer was so I said no. Tired of being told what to do. Maybe if Tony asked me or something. But, another mistake I made from immaturity.

Junior High was like 1966 and the spring and summer before was filled with tales of horror. “Ninth graders, like, knock your books out of your hand ‘n shit.” “You gotta be naked after gym”. Oh no, everyone was going to know about my hairy legs that I had managed to keep hidden.

Somehow I shaved them where they could be seen between socks and thigh pads in midget football. That naked bullshit was downright weird. Suddenly, a class full of boys were naked with each other, after being taught modesty at home? Then what was REALLY creepy was high school where the coachs office was like, 15 feet from the showers.

“So they can make sure no hanky panky is going on.” I’m told. Another what the hell moment that only crystalizes into adult awareness. Now I look at the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the abuse in the boy scouts class action lawsuit and now I wonder if there is some sort of homo-erotic thing with men. When Randazzo the neighbor saw a huge stump one day he goes “bicep contest”. Everyone put their elbows on the stump and flexed and I’m like WTH is this?

Luckily I was bereft of any sort of male influence regarding guns and sex and being told killing things is OK. Like I said Ritchie with his beating frogs on cement was beyond my comprehension. He done kilt a rabbit and chopped its foot off and showed me one Saturday. I was like what in the fuck is this? This is why I assumed he was in jail as I got older. Or dead. My psycho friend.

The disaster with Janis did yield some insights. The boys were all about coercing the girls for sex she told me. You know the upstanding citizens of Wethersfield High School like Mike B. She mentioned other names but I forgot them. Then there was Ed Duggan the King of coercive assholes. I read his comments on facebook and I’m like how do these women tolerate this misogyny and even find him endearing?

Now he’s dead and people are like what an adorable guy and bought him, like, a park bench or something. A memorial plaque. More like a royal plague.

There was 10th grade football and the Charleys and Jims of our 1-7 season in 1969 were being hyper jocks, but somehow always had lots of excuses for missing practice. One thing I distinctly remember is that I didn’t miss a single practice. Smallest dude on the team at 5’6” 140, I certainly took my lumps but did the running up and down the bleachers with a uniform on …barely. Then rode my Roddy one speed 4 miles home.

So this is a pattern I like to think I created. Tough everything out. I was blinded by Jimmy Pierces rock and the doctor said no football or baseball for a year, so I sat out 9th grade Jayvee football and when I could play baseball again it was with all the neighborhood kids in Clarks cow field. I realized I’d never be a baseball player at that point, the pitching was just too fast. Another form of bullying. One year of senior league in 8th grade and I was 9 for 39 with a strikeout in the world series.

I could nail a runner at home from center field but when a 14 year old is throwing 85 MPH from 30 feet away (66 feet in the major leagues), it was downright scary. I couldn’t swing fast enough. I also learned about branding when I found out the name of my team was Wethersfield Optical. We were The Opticals? That was like Shaun playing soccer for Riverside Lawns. “Go Lawns” I’d shout at the games. “Get psyched”.

 

Back to 2020, I see these male creatures with their “I just broke a beer bottle and I’m going to kill you in a barfight” attitude, and   the dudes with their gym muscles and I am not getting it. They need a constant reassurance of their manhood or something but now I realize it’s a show. Everybody working on their brand, marketing their masculinity. Everyone craving fame and greatness.



So to me it’s your actions that make you a man. While the boys were talking tough with their pints in Beantown, I was riding my bicycle through the ghetto in Hartford to get to the Green quickly and then further out in West Hartford on the way back, when I was tipsy from downing my six pack of Pabst. A 30 mile round trip easily.

  In my 30’s I doggedly created a two mile trail that connected all the patches of forest that remained in Hazardville during the 80’s. Looking back on all my efforts, I am so thankful to be still standing all these years. Truly grateful I had the sturdy legs to do these things like hiking and biking. Didn’t like that weird leg hair though, then disappointment when I never developed beard hair.

Twenty years of teenagers and 30 years of (guiding raising?) children and most difficult of all, the 25 years with J as she framed my narrative with my sisters, her sisters and anyone else she could defame and degrade me in their eyes. Maybe Scott is right. A misandrist.

Now at 66 comes a dilemma of not buying into the system. Leaving 25 years of blood sweat and fears in a house that was never mine and not even getting a pittance for my effort. I took our tax refund one year and got a loan for the rest to buy the lot next door for $6400. What do we need it for? Only you need it she complained. And complained.  An investment, maybe, dear sweet wise queen of mine? Now it’s worth 28,000 and still without a penny to my name. Looking at sleeping in my truck I still need to buy.

 

All these expectations about being a man, but I feel that, at least to myself, I proved it.  In 2020 all these boomer dudes talk about is how many people they bossed or how much property they accumulated. Endlessly gossiping and bragging and bearing false witness against others. Mowing people down like zombies with their verbal guns I absolutely cannot bear to hear another boomer life story. As I  explained, I have talked to a lot of people all my life till about 2005 after ten years of ceaseless negativity and false accusations I was constantly forced to prove false and these “argument starters only got worse and worse and finally I had a big moment where I was drifting away from everyone as I created a shell around me.

As an aside here, I know somebody who is particularly annoying with the bragging about themselves and how they are loved wherever they go he tells me (unlike me, it’s assumed I am a grumpy old fuck). Come to find out they stroll down the boardwalk repeating their life stories to five people a day. The same old schtick is wearying. People always virtue signaling to me that they are either a better person or a good business person (unlike me who doesn’t even return phone calls) or beat me at things that don’t make me feel like I want to be competitive.

It's time to toughen up again and endure. September 12th 2020 and the cool weather is within reach. Five months of glorious weather and perhaps my last year in business. November 12th and night time temperatures are still 10 to 15 degrees above normal in the high 70’s. Florida is finally getting old and I am shaking it up in 2021. I know I sound defensive in my stories here but that’s why I call this FRAMING MY OWN NARRATIVE. People are no longer interesting to me so I spend my time writing to try and entertain but also to open myself up as to who I really am. I only tell stories once and I don’t remember who I told what stories to but just the same, no one knows more than 10%  of me.

I’m leaving myself open to anything but I am telling myself this is my last summer outdoors. Anything can happen but opportunity only knocks when you’re out there doing it and immersing oneself in the world and … well… networking. Looking like I will give up my three Orchid customers on January 1st and that will be 30 years. There. Thirty years going to Busy Bee and Moody Tire. I sense a change coming on but I need to mingle with people again but I am so not into meeting people. I’ve literally had enough of people. Conundrum or imbroglio?

But I probably still have a lot to learn about relationships. Started with Joyce. On a paperboy trip a dude named Paul picked up a “chick” at the park. A long story short, they broke up but I dated Joyce and I’d take the bus to Windsor and go to the movies. Then there was a pressure about getting her a ring and I was chastised on the phone by one of her friends. I didn’t have a clue. One awkward kiss was a relationship?  Nobody needs this.

Sports. I write about a lot in …

“ENVIROMENTAL LEGISLATION

 DESTROYED MY FIRST CAREER”

Life Story writing prompt continues on page 40

The paperboy of yesteryear was a wonderful option for boys in the 60's. It was a skill building, freedom loving occupation; with the obvious benefits that came from learning about small business at a young age. If you were never a paperboy, there was also a social component involved with this job that was critically important.   

       When I had to go collecting for the weekly bill, I went to nearly everybody’s house, exchanging pleasantries and enjoying talking with the many different kinds of people and listening to what they had to say and always adding my youthful two cents. Now it’s funny to look back and realize I had my own small business with 40 customers such a long time ago, one of the last of the door to door peddlers.                                                  

By 1971, I was 17 years old and getting many questions; derisive questions from my peers wondering when I would get a real job. You know, being a 17 year old paperboy was so uncool to them. The minimum wage back then was $1.25 an hour and when I got the second paper route in tenth grade, I made 40 dollars in about 13 hours a week. Over three dollars an hour! It would be like making 16 dollars an hour today, in 10th grade! I thought I had it going on, because work and school were over at 3:10, and when that school bell rang; I was free! “Tell me when you’re making forty dollars a week” I told my peers, “from your real job.” They spent 20 hours a week in the hot Connecticut sun, working shade tobacco, to make 22 dollars.

 I spent three hours of the thirteen total collecting what was due, but that turned into 6 hours a week, with all the diversions and wanderings I pursued , but fun didn't count as work hours. I was running loose in the morning in the dark delivering papers and on Friday and Saturday evening I  didn’t have to account for any of my time with my parents. Nice to be trusted. Now it’s like, “ why were you at the store so long>”                    

Eventually, I did get curious to see what a “real job” was like. Remember my work was done by 7 in the morning. So I had time to be a “soda jerk” at Dougherty Drugs after school. I only made 20 dollars a week there, in about 16 hours from 4 to 8,  4 days a week. Who needed that, not even half of what I made as a paperboy?  I’m glad I didn’t give up my morning job.                    

Back even further to 1965 when I was 11, my very first paper route was an afternoon paper route. Back in those days there was a competition in all the cities between the morning and afternoon paper and the paperboys were voraciously active selling their product, and there was no advertising needed. My parents approved of this activity, and thought if this worked out, I could start my own college fund. I just wanted to make ten dollars a week and ended up making 11 or 12, and having more fun than I expected.

   Back in those days banks gave between 5 and 6% interest. Today most “banks” don’t deal with savings accounts that are small, and they get away with the legal corruption of eliminating many savings accounts for young people by instituting the "Inactive Account" scam throughout the nineties.

    People thought they had put aside 400 dollars, for instance, for a newborn child’s future, only to go back 10 years later to see that there was nothing left in the account! Today, banks never pay more than 1% interest in savings, stifling the teen entrepreneur at the very least. In fact, if you do not have a minimum of $400 in the account these days, there is a penalty.

   In the old days, you could put money in the bank and every quarter you would check how much interest accrued, so my mother set aside 8 dollars every week to go in the bank and I kept the rest. I got a few new customers and got my income up to 11 or 12 dollars a week which gave me some jingle jangle in my pocket. I had 3 dollars to spend as I chose from the time I was 11 onwards. Usually for bicycle parts or sports equipment that wasn’t available in the paperboy contests but I can say I’ve been buying my own shit since then.

   My bundle of papers was dropped off at the apartments where half of the customers were. Sure enough, I was up and down those elevators thousands of times.  Friends seemed to like to help deliver the papers if they got to mess around with the elevator. "Dude, that's the last time" I'd tell them as the elevator opened up to a generally friendly old person.  "How are you fellas doing today?" “Great Sir, we forgot a paper on the third floor and we’re going back. Rodney Kolodny here (pointing to a friend) still doesn’t know how to operate an elevator.”

I had businesses on the Silas Deane Highway; along with a couple remaining residences on the Silas Deane that refused to sell to developers. Customers included the gas station at the light, Western Auto (where I got tires, spokes, and ball bearings) and a wide variety of other customers. A place called Carlin Inc. had the WORLDS MOST PERFECT BIKE JUMP.

    I had a stretch of customers down the other side of the light including a hardware store.  Burger Chef, the first fast food to arrive in Wethersfield, was where I would give 25 cents now and then to the teen age panhandlers Tony and Tommy.   Every day I cruised through the Carlin INC. loading dock, setting up for the jump. I only had to fall once at the beginning, to be much more careful.  Back when we could have unsupervised rough play.

   Then I'd drive over the tracks and over to Mill St.  A wooded swampy area with some very dilapidated housing.  They were very poor families, much like you’d see in Appalachia; people that still had outhouses. One generation removed from potato sack clothes, they were former mill workers and it was a stark atmosphere that was hard to forget. The mill had been closed more than ten years and these families were impoverished by the paltry pay from the predatory capitalist fat cats, no doubt. 

The Mill Street Appalachia was demolished a year or two later and there was a rumor something different was coming to that site. Something we’d never seen before. During the summer of ‘66 I was 12 and decided I couldn’t go another school year working the afternoon paper and miss all those baseball and football games after school. I made the phone call to sign up with the morning newspaper, The Hartford Courant, which was established in 1764. Their motto was and still is, “Older than the nation, newer than the news.”

  Two weeks later came the phone call; route #406 was available, was I interested? “Yeh!”  Dude named Gorski was giving up his route, being 14, a big kid who was going to get a “real job” working tobacco. In Connecticut we know about “working tobacco”.  Shade grown for cigar wrappers, it was hot and horrible work, but what a pile of cash at the end of the week and 14 year olds were allowed to work it. 50 dollars! In one week! All you had to do was resign yourself to exhaustion, sunburn and summer fun only on the weekends.

                 

                

     Gorski told me about the customers he liked on the route and made sure I treated them right and they WERE great people. I went with him for two mornings and that was it. He passed on the collection book and told me I’d make 14 a week from it. This route was in historic Old Wethersfield and I did make 14 a week and built it up a little bit to 16, and then something big happened at the former Appalachia site.

     Eventually, there were sixteen buildings and 64 living units on the site. What a bonanza, so many potential customers in such a small area. I could drop five papers in a minute. Mill St. Appalachia gave way to something I’d never seen before.  It looked like the Jordan Lane Nursing Home, but everyone grew to love it despite its bricky nothingness for architecture. These homes were called “condos”.  Condominiums.

 I had been like any other fierce, territorial CEO. As they were being built, I hovered around them territorially while letting Izard and Joe, the two closest paperboys, that this uncharted Hartford Courant territory was mine, because, after all, I had customers on both side of the project. Permanent residents I once had on the Hartford Times afternoon paper route, I converted to the morning paper, the Hartford Courant.

So Gorski went off to work tobacco in the blazing sun and humid summer heat. 50 bucks! 44 after taxes… he had big dreams.      Saving up his pennies saving up his dimes to buy a 409.     

  The Hartford Courant had good contests for getting new customers, and I often won basketballs and gloves and bats and newfangled collecting books. With these condos; I got enough new customers to qualify for numerous day trips to New York City. In the winter, the Courant took us to a ski lodge in Massachusetts and when I had gotten enough new customer points; there were the three day trips to D.C. or Cape Cod. You see; this is a form of enlightened capitalism.  Or what an open free marketplace should be. When things go well and sales are up, everybody prospers.

    

       Customers were all pretty nice, and everyone had their own little gig to talk about, and it was fun getting a peek into other people’s lives, and there were lots of people to talk about the issues of the day.

        “We buy our milk from the store now," I remember people telling me things like this as we were transitioning into the modern age. The local dairies began having trouble competing with the avaricious new dairy corporations bent on excessive profits and converting the family farm into the factory farm.

          “The fruit peddler used to stop here," was another comment I remember.  He had a rolling fruit stand, and when I was about 12 with my new morning route, he had 10 or 15 customers on our street and I would wave to him, though he was a grumpy sort.  A couple years previous he even had a horse that pulled his cart, for real, with horse poop (road apples) in the road and everything. Nobody cared; you went around road apples in those days . Today you sue the horses’ owner.

      Business was bad since the A&P opened up in 1964 and by 1968 he was gone. Mrs. Gangi, who was handicapped, was his last steady customer and one or two others. A & P became the place to shop.  Then Popular Market in 67 across the other side of the Silas Deane Highway.

        Two small business institutions I saw fade away; the milkman and the fruitman, and eventually the paperboy seemed to have disappeared.  But I was thriving by 1969, making about 20 to 24 dollars a week and I think my mother was making me save a minimum of 16 dollars per week at this point. She’d show me the passbook now and then. Astonishing, approaching 2,000 dollars when I was 15! The 5.5% interest helped the savings build faster. In this world of 2020, you need to save thousands of dollars in long term notes, to barely get 1%.   Did I hear someone say ‘pit of vipers?’                                                                                                                              

     What then of the milkman and fruit peddler now? Our local dairy was probably 8 miles away in Rocky Hill. Every 20 miles or so, there was a dairy, I’m sure. Locally grown eggs and milk from cows you could wave to as you drove by. "John-get your head back in the car!"

One of my jobs was leaving out the milk bottles to be picked up; then bringing in what the milkman left, since I was the first one to wake up in the morning. Looking back, what was the greatest generation thinking when they let progress trample over this and other old fashioned but useful traditions? Predatory capitalism has torn apart the social fabric with the greatest generation as willing dupes.

          How old are our eggs now and how far have they traveled? What chemicals have been applied to feed? How crowded are conditions with the chickens? Our modern food production kept food prices artificially low, but at what social and moral cost?  Too much lost…landmarks, wetlands, ancient forests, and the fine network of small brooks and streams were compromised or destroyed as the greatest generation ravaged resources such as Southern Forests for cheap homes in the fifties and sixties, and the Atlantic ocean for fish on Friday.

       That white Cadillac, so many aspired to, symbolized purity and wealth and the façade of prosperity. Corporations tore apart the family farm and the self-sufficient homestead during the alleged post war prosperity. Much of what makes a community tighter was destroyed by the Greatest “can’t do anything about it” Generation. “Can’t stop progress” the cathode ray instructed them.

         Where are the paperboys now? I don’t think I’ve seen a real paperboy for 20 years. What a great way for children to learn about profits, and loss, productivity, and efficiency along with customer relations. Something has most definitely been lost. Now our pollution spewing death wagons are used in paper delivery. I could always throw a newspaper within two feet of the door. No one wants to get dressed to go get their paper at the end of the driveway like we do today. The death wagons spew carbon monoxide in the early morning stillness.  My morning hair could really frighten someone and many get their paper before they are presentable. Some customers demanded I put the paper inside the screen door, and usually these people tipped pretty well.

       I was deadly accurate, even at 15 MPH on the bike, so my customers opened the door just a crack to get their news instead of going down to the street in their jammies. A lot of youngsters like me had an income and my money circulated through the economy via Western Auto and Mad Magazine and Nestles chocolate, while saving 4,000 dollars by my senior year in 1972.  Take that …  real job.

 

 

       Before being a paperboy I had my first career picking up soda bottles. It was 1964 and littering had gotten out of control. People thought nothing of just throwing out garbage of any sort as they drove, the Greatest Generation, right? The privileged 'we defeated Hitler' generation. Unbelievable now to think how our roadsides used to look like garbage at the dump. Most frequently littered were soda bottles. Some were worth 2 cents, bigger ones were 5 cents.... America was discovering soda in a big way and we brought in bottles frequently.

       Business got real slow in ’65 because of the littering laws that were being passed and ironically; environmental legislation drove me out of my first business. It was worth it though; a new consciousness was arriving, questioning the strictures of the Old Society.  The Greatest Generation felt they deserved anything they could get, and the resources of this country and planet was theirs to use: seven generations worth of consumption in one. Consume they did                          

        One day, to make some money,  me  n' Richie got the notion of picking blackberries and selling them to the produce manager at Popular Market. With a spaghetti saucepot half filled with berries, we walked into the store figuring we could possibly make 75 cents. It would be like finding more than 20 bottles, all at once.   

    The produce manager looked at our fruit and for perhaps for a second, a bemused smile crept over his face as he thought about tasty local fruit…………………..but then he looked at our crud encrusted fingernails and said, “I appreciate this fellas……….but uh, I'd need to see a business license.”  What hath the corporate world wrought?

                  *****************

WRITING PROMPT CONTINUES





       

    We lived on our bicycles. Going to places like under 91 near the dump. Best of all was the Meadows. Woods Corn field and then the Connecticut river. Eventually we got to crossing on the Rocky Hill Ferry and over to Cotton Hollow when I was 16 to 20. I often came back even after I moved to Bloomfield.

           Perfect, a peaceful running stream you could walk across. Lots of rocks to jump from. As good as the Rockies without the mountain views of course.

    In Bloomfield Pennwood is very similar to a knob in the Appalachians. I could ride my bike there. Then my motorcycle then my bike again and finally the black van. Young man with lots of energy. Lots of sports and paper routes gave me some sturdy legs. No gym muscles here. So I went for long hikes at Pennwood.

       Going to Arizona and living on a street called Flying A I felt like I was in the middle of the desert, another kind of wilderness.

           I’ll put that picture of mary Lou walking in view of Cat Mountain right here. One day I was sitting on a rock doing a number and looking at all the views of different mountain ranges and saw a cloud that looked like a classic eagle shape and I had some sort of revelation that day.

           We moved into town after a year and a half and lived there for a year and a half. Not much hiking but some amazing walks with Mary Lou Dickens and our new cat Rocky.

           Rocky was a stray we fed. Skinny with very long legs he went missing for a couple days just after we decided to adopt him. It became five days and we thought we had lost him. Went back to his owner or something.

           Then there was the day we heard a muted mewing at the back door. It was him. His fur was all matted and oily but he seemed uninjured. If only animals could talk he could have told us what a degrading experience he had. His fur was scraped off if I remember correctly. He looked like he got run over by a car.

           So my cat buddies and I walked all over the neighborhood. Seriously really far, we were truly a pack. I remember the cats darting from one concealed spot to the next as we went further and further each time. Mary Lou would do what I told her and we had hiked before and drove cross country. Dickens always had a knack for running and hiding and Rocky was the boy from the streets. Truly one of the greatest memories for my mind.

     Then we got the job as caretakers at a 40 acre ranch. One of 125 applicants but we seemed like the right fit.   250,000 acres in the Coronado National Forest to explore and the next town was 37 miles away. Interesting were the dry stream beds where the occasional roaring torrent went through. One favorite memory was when me Sally and Sammy went through a mini valley. Forty foot cliffs on both sides and one day coyotes started yippin’ and yappin’ from up above. I knew they would never attack an adult human and two large dogs so we continued without fear.

           Of course, there was my most exciting nature moment ever and that was when I was alone one day, kind of lost and I looked up at a small hill and saw about five Peccaries. I stood there and they stood there. This could be a problem.

           They decided to keep on doing what they were doing and that was looking for food. Insects roots fruits prickly pear. It was out there where I gave myself to the land. Whatever sexless deity there was out there. I rejected all religion and made a vow to educate people regarding that.

           Not log after I came across a little oasis in the middle of the desert with some really green soft grass. A magical place and I found some antlers there that day and I still have them. Another exciting day I was in the Sahuaro Monument east of where we lived. A real black cloud crept over the horizon. I was too far out to run back to the house I figured I’d tough out whatever it was. Heavy rain became hail and I crouched behind a Sahuaro.

           Sometimes I only took Sammy out for a hike and left Sally back at the compound. Sammy was tough as nails, Sally not so much. Sammy had a docked tail and an awesome moment was when I saw Sammy rear up on his hind legs with three coyotes challenging him. He really looked just like a Bear, a shaggy Black Bear. That was cool.

           Moving to Enfield Connecticut in 1984, I was 30 and was doing a lot of yoga and running 3 miles. Along with working outdoors as a gardener, that was my health regimen for a long time. I’ve been working outdoors for forty years. Minus the year and a half with Plantations and Plantscapes, the indoor plant companies.

            So in Thompsonville my big thing was jogging down route 5 and looking at all the big houses. There was a tiny library there too and I belonged to a workout club for a year called The Sporting House just off route 5.

           Then moving to Hazardville brought me to one of my favorite ecosystems. Freshwater brook, stream, river, who knows? Swamps and bogs and white Birch pioneer stands and Pitch Pine. Very nice Hemlocks and an occasional Shagbark Hickory.

           Giant 100 foot Sycamores at the edge of farmers fields.

RIGHT HERE WOULD BE THE PLACE TO PUT MY STORY CALLED DESOTO POND. THE STORY OF CREATING THAT TRAIL.

    We start the writing prompt editing again right here with the question ... do you have a favorite year you would go back and live again without changing it?

    Well I was writing about the music released and 1973 and it seemed astounding. Then I started thinking about what I was doing that year and I thought of another writing prompt  

 1973

Sleeping under a big tree at the college on the corner near West Hartford and Hartford. Somewhere along the way in '73 I switched from Wally the 250 Suzuki to a pair of ten speeds. I rode them to the food co-op downtown and to Wethersfield to sink a six pack of Pabst with the boys. What luck the drinking age was lowered to my age and it was suddenly completely legal.

     Free to do as I please the year after school ended. Joined book of the month club and there were some great old book stores in Central Connecticut.  Research wise I became interested in corn and life of the Indian tribes in the Connecticut River Valley. So I went downtown to the state library and started searching for the culture of the native Americans and corn seemed to be the key. Copy machines were becoming more common.

     I joined the book of the month club that year and moved into my own place and the first that I had to pay rent for. I'll run down a list of my fave albums from '73 and I swear, it's the shit. The stuff that will last forever. Lost on a desert island … yeh that kind of year.

    If I recall, I got Wally in like, June of '72, ostensibly for Manchester Community College. I do remember exactly how many miles I drove on all Wally with the raised pipes. I went down every state road in Connecticut to see what there was to see.

   Wally was a sturdy old cuss, a '68 I think, and put 16,000 more miles on him. Went to school and drove down every road in Connecticut and Central Massachusetts looking at the foliage that fall. 

       Quit school after one semester, the bike went away in the cold, for less than three months and I was still living at home. I had the dough so I spent a lot of time reading and not working that winter. 

    As soon as it was warm enough, I was back on the motorcycle. That shit was fun. Drove everywhere that spring and went to the ten speed in July. Mary Lou and Suzie from Bristol were girlfriends to visit.13 months and 16,000 miles. I felt like I had a real motorcycle experience. Thank you, Jesus for getting me over Avon Mountain so many times, and not letting me get killed on those rainy nights.

    I remember taking Anne home in a heavy rain when her car broke down at her college and she called me to help. Drove that motorcycle in the rain and she returned the favor by driving me to the Pink Floyd, "Dark side of the Moon" tour in March 1973.

   So seriously what an exhilarating year I had. Re-educating myself, travelling thoroughly in my own bioregion *Connecticut River Valley. Pink Floyd and the first quadrophonic concert in March. Bill Bruford left Yes and he brought out the best in King Crimson on the "Larks Tongue in Aspic" album later in '73. Carl Palmer, John Bonham Ian Paice and Billy Cobham round out the best five drummers in 1973

    I rode my bicycle during the summer. Drove it all the way to the beach and did some ten speeding to the Wethersfield Green or up hills like at Pennwood Park. Near Avon Mountain looking like the Appalachians.

      It was like 60 miles from Bloomfield to Hamonasett Beach and 22 more miles up to Higganum where a friend lived. 82 miles in one day. Physical challenge.

      You know, so bizarre, all these Indian names of everything but where did they go? My parents favorite lake with a tough to pronounce Indian name. I'll look it up in a minute, my computer is doing weird stuff with tabs.

       My head was going to explode from the programmed learning in the highly inadequate educational system. Training the brain for the mundane I can't count the thousands of hours wasted on what passes for learning.

     So I bought a camera and began photography as a hobby after I graduated. The Enfield Falls the Travelers Tower, the zombie three tier abandoned overpass in West Hartford. I put hundreds of miles on my ten speed every month.

           

       I researched The Charter Oak at the state library near the Capitol building. Just locked my bicycle out front and hewed away at the Dewey Decimal System.

       The Book of the Month Club had gone radical with all these occult books and I bought a Tarot Deck at a used book store, which were also proliferating and comfortable hangout. Of which I only have seven cards left. I slept with the deck near me for 15 years but by the end of the eighties, I became an atheist again.

      In 1973, I was re-educating myself in a hurry with Drucker and Hofstadter and H G Wells' History of the world where I learned about the Reindeer People.

         In August I moved into Mr. Lynchs flop house. I rode my ten speed to work, probably a mile and a half, but I remember one day I went to hop a curb like you would with a solid one speed bike. Needless to say that was a bloody mess all over my arm.

    Revelation pasty white guy and his Mercedes. One of my best moments was when I decided not to be a bookkeeper and to not go back to college. 

   It must have been in April or May of '73. The motorcycle wasn't any real kind of exercise so I drove the ten speed back to Wethersfield to hang out. Maybe I was overnight at Steves and with a Polish breakfast in my belly, I was riding back home. I often ended up on Windsor Street and I think it was near a bridge, but not 84. Trumbull Street maybe.

There were innumerable routes to get to Blue Hills Avenue which I needed to use on Hampton Lane or Emerson Avenue. Unless I was taking the longer route through West Hartford.

I remember it being like 9 in the morning and I stopped the bike to get a sip of water. Standing on the sidewalk I saw a car drive into a teeny parking area and I noted an extremely small building. Less than 500 square feet and it was for like bookkeeping services. 

  A young adult spends a lot of time trying to figure out what the fuck kind of career a dude wants and pondering how you want to pursue the Almighty Dollar. 

So here's Ronald Rotunda stepping out of his minty yellow Mercedes and it was like I was tripping, you know, those moments when you are transcending time and space? It was an incredibly run down part of a run down city and this tiny island of prosperity seemed to hold no joy. 

     He looked like he was on the Bridge of Sighs at Attica, headed for execution. It all seemed like slow motion; you know. My spirit guide needed me to stop thinking about going into the business world. It was like a wrecking ball to my future.

   I had $4000 in the bank for my future. Higher education I decided against and thought of getting a used Mercedes. As my revelation unfolded I realized I was looking at myself 20 years from now. Did I want to be this person? A pasty white, under exercised cipher drone for some company or another?

   For days I pondered the mystery. I was going to let a career choice flow. Do what I like and let the Universe be my guide. Now I didn't really think like that, but I was going to let it flow from there. It would be another five years before I decided on a career in horticulture and proceeded with my career path self-education from there out in 1980. 

   Sports was so important to my youth. Greatly attracted to baseball and football. Baseball ended up as  difficult as the boys had growth spurts while my growth stopped at 5'6".  I managed to get a letter in Football in tenth grade, that was cool. The reward for doing difficult things in your youth is rewarde in memories later. Glad that's over kind of thing.

    So there I was one early morning in 11th grade at the Wethersfield Town Green. I've always loved when the darkness of the night had given way to a very gray reality of dawn.  Sometimes I would take a book on my paper route and would sit at a bench that was near the Nathanial Foote landmark. This was before the bus shelter was put in.

    I was reading a book by Jim Kicx or something and it was a ground breaking book on Jogging. Nope. Google shows me Kixx' book came out in '77 He's the dumbass that thought he could run marathons with an enlarged heart and a father who died of one at 43.

    I was probably reading the Roby Davis book "jogging for  fitness and weight control". I was also reading Hittlemans guide to Yoga.

     I remember formulating the plan that day. Yoga jogging and bicycling. Running would lead to injuries I was reading. Long term.  So jogging seemed like a more natural choice. Walk the more scenic areas and run past unpleasant people. What you abuse as a youth, you'll pay for it when you're 50. and rough sports like rugby .... well....I didn’t need any more concussions.

     I remember jogging around the Green. I read that running on the street was more stressful so I always tried to stay on the grass or dirt. So in retrospect I think my attitude was to do what i wanted instead of needing people to share the experience? I think its more about control and the human need for it. I abhor control I don't like to be bossed and i don't like being the boss.

    Then there was Richard Hittlemans book about Yoga in 1969.  http://hathayoga.com/richard-hittlemans-yoga-28-day-exercise-plan/#:~:text=Richard%20Hittleman%E2%80%99s%20Yoga%2028%20Day%20Exercise%20Plan%201,plan.%20...%205%20Thoughts%20for%20the%20day.%20 

 

 

 

 

John A Almada

The college edumacated characters I've met usually lack the overall skills needed to get the job done. Working for a greenhouse, the owner was the inventor of the Jet Plug and vice president of Ball Seed and a college grad with a business degree. He was manic and emotional and clueless with the employees. He hired Dwight who could repair the trucks and then rebuild an old greenhouse and spot plant problems with the best of them. He was a leader not a boss. Then he hired Vicky touting her degree, but she knew too much of what wasn't needed and also had no people skills. On another job I was the first person to take care of an elaborate ten million dollar beach club. A year later the installer won an award for his design and told me the only reason he won it in the first year was because I got the plants to fill in quickly. Didn't need no boss to tell me what to do but then after three years in receivership, the staff expanded and I got me a freshly minted college grad as a boss. I could ignore him pretty much, but one day a patch of grass got yellow and he took it upon himself to fertilize it. He also got iron stains all over the place that I had to remove with Muriatic Acid. Then there have been all the overpaid "landscape architects" whose flawed designs were the bane of workers existence on many jobs. Then there was Joe the college grad nursery boss. "It doesn't matter what you say to a customer just say it authoritatively" I could go on and on with examples but in conclusion, Donna you are a botanist, and you don't need a piece of paper from the city hall making you one. This guy too Tony Santoro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVmSy5bsuMk 




BELOW IS THE PREVIOUS REWRITE 

 


 





 



 

     


 

       


 

       

 extra notes and reminders   

 

Glasses and dentists

Food co-op and black van

  

Master gardeners and mesquite

IPM Salsedo in CT and green party beginnings

Matt bagley and the iron incident college grad boss

Traynig side job and wethersfield condos first side job I went to on my bicycle

Ancient corn amateur scientist open pollinated experiment

Early mornings with the dude who brought the papers

#420 406 memories.

Garys smoking lounge at Valley Crest

Coach cottone movies only dude who went to every practice.

Bernie in Tariffville

With my cat on my lap I moved out west what a life she had

Jose River concept

Village Pizza subs and disco Mexicans

Park Mall overalls babes 525 irrigation heads

Park Mall underbid by art nordell type maintenance guy

West side drug dealer before john bloom in 12 foot trailer.

Anarchist at copaco

Places I moved I am the scout

Mom new Hampshire sherry

Brian and the buds in the suitcase

Master gardener tissue culture

North st cemetary Ivy goose pond desoto pond

Jane OCD with ADD and CCD

Mike Two Hawks stories

Ringing willie peps doorbell and smashing pumpkins

2-4-2 

WHO ARE THE WHITE PEOPLE

  “The founding revolutionaries excoriated and eviscerated religions creepy grasp on the 

      VITAL ENERGY OF DEMOCRACY, 
when they started the United States.”
a)  The Sky is Falling
b)  The Vital Energy of Democracy
c)   The is no religion in the marketplace
d)   Dog Whistles
e)    Donut Shop Pundits
f)   Who are the White People?
g)   Intractable Dilemma
h)   The Meek are now the Enlightened
                           

    
           Here we go, we're buckled in and the ride into the future has started. You can go numb and pretend nothing is happening, or participate in the fun we are going to have making history and invalidating injustice.
                         ↯
                       
          If the Constitution of the United States were embedded in all our hearts, this secret world of surveillance and spying would not exist. In addition, these unconstitutional foreign wars wouldn't have wasted safety net and infrastructure money. 
      What we have today is right-wing authoritarianism run amok with American foreign policy and capitalist opportunism gone wild and running roughshod on the domestic economy. Chicken Hawks getting your kids to fight in their paranoid wars since WW2 and looking to the the Biden administration, there doesn't appear to be any  peacemakers. 
      Meanwhile numerous countries in the Middle East have been bombed into rubble, much to the delight of those with stocks in American bomb-making facilities. 
        Regime change in Libya was abhorrent in my view, and it's why I could not find any enthusiasm for Hillary in 2016. Nobody could, she couldn’t even attract a disinterested cynicism and was in favor of a war of any sort, and there was also a clotted nothingness to her, not to mention the bill baggage. 
          There was the corporate invasion of Iraq which proceeded for 13 years with virtually no antiwar effort, once the wars began. Therefore, in 2009 as the wars droned on,  Obama appeased the right wingers by keeping up with their wars. If he had quickly wound down the two wars after becoming president, the rest of his presidency would have been all about what a coward he was. How he couldn't stand up to terrorism. 

          This is how the GOP works, even after 13 years, members of the GOP say we should still be in Iraq. Hedging their bets, getting nothing done and staying even longer in Afghanistan, politicians and the warrior elites have spent ungodly amounts of money as war without end became popular with boomers who appreciated how well their war stocks were doing.
           President Obama somehow got his footing in the quicksand of Republican incontinence, and he salvaged George Cheney Bush’s wars, acting more like a republican than a republican. I called him the best republican president since Eisenhower and Obama is sometimes called George Bush the Third for, "engaging terrorists on the battlefield instead of in the homeland."   
           ðŸ™‰ Some white people seem obsessed with cleanliness and order, especially order. As my Facebook bio says, "White people have become sociologically inbred with their faith in authoritarian excess."  Unless it's a test range for bombs and weapons, then hell, the messier the better.         ⇛    ⇒ 
Show them who's boss.

                                                                                

          As a youth, I would often note "Columbus didn't discover anything," and I would add,” the Indians were already here." People actually responded with, “ you know the first civilized people." I call this benighted behavior, 'donut shop punditry" and these bile spewing haters are turning out to be far more dangerous than supposed, and their verbal bilge  more prevalent than most people realized. 
          There haven’t been many people as deeply and severely critical of white people as me in many of my past essays, and conversations with people about it. Therefore, I am going to tackle the white supremacy problem prepared for disagreements from all sides, because this is one of those volatile and polarizing issues we can't talk about. 

       Conniving hucksters on both sides pushing their agenda while Independents attempt to find a consensus.  
a}   THE SKY IS FALLING

          Trust me; there are scarier aspects to this whole alt-right problem that people don't even see yet. First of all, as I update this piece a bit, what has happened in 2017-9 is white MALE supremacy. I want to help us all understand how to read between the lines with these people, who speak in riddles and dog whistles.
         "Are you a white supremacist?" is the question that popped up in the break room one day. In the mind of the White Nationalist he is thinking that he is a white MALE supremacist, which is different, so he says no and this is one way they avoid answering direct questions, and this is how they lie in your face. They lie to themselves first.

               Who are these white people, and is it worth the time to refute their walls of fallacious arguments?  Their evolving coup of the United States government is 40 years in the making, even 60 years going back to the founding of the JBS. John Birch Society, I trace it back even to 1946, 75 years ago, and Nazis were pardoned and brought into our government as our foreign policy  was rooted in the fear of communism instead of the actual threat. Stupid Bigly forced their hand, and today in 2020 we have apparatchiks encouraging t***p to declare Martial Law. 

             Christian militants in the early 80's announced their plans to "put as many Apocalypticists as possible in the military and police." They yearn for Armageddon and you have to wonder if there is some mental illness at work here. Maybe even demon possession. 
              Back then, I would point out to people that ... intending to create Armageddon via our military was Treason. "Aw they're not serious." So, there I was, "the sky is falling" again. T***p moves the embassy to Jerusalem because the evangelicals told him it was prophecy.

              Fox News is the ultimate KKKool-aid and brainwashing tool for far too many white people. GOP politicians are probably the most despicable demographic going, but, on the other side, the cultural appropriation nonsense needs to be dealt with also. 
          All those gender issues that the city slicker liberals have gotten themselves mired in, that rural people could really give a shit less about, have stolen the narrative. Hard fought, pyrrhic victories while the rich get richer and most of the rest of us are now leading lives of quiet desperation. Battles that shouldn't have to be fought were it not for the snowflake conservatives and their moral high ground hypocrisy.


          On the other hand, I am at my wit's end trying to understand what I can and can’t do with this extreme City Slicker Liberal agenda. There are so many things I can't talk about any more. 
💚

    Either way, if we play this right we can uproot the neo-conservative and neo-liberal people in power.
 The dingleberries clinging by a hair to their illegitimate authority. The congealing Oligarchy guiding the hapless peasants who only know how to obey. 
               I know the American Constitution has all the freedoms that I love, but I am also the last person who wants to insult someone about their culture. One of my kin picks up a shirt from Africa and then she has to worry about offending someone when she wears it? Independent thinking people are beginning to be concerned about this dumbed down mob rule. 
                      Political correctness needs me to identify with “my” cultural group instead of considering myself, a… global citizen?   One problem for me is that I've been appropriating Yoga for over 45 years now and I am in shock that I have been insulting people by appropriating their culture! 
                      Do I follow “white” customs only now? Am I white enough though, to do an Irish jig? Did you know "paddy" is a slur against Irish people! It never ends, all these slurs and insults. Am I white enough to drink tea at Tea Time without insulting someone?  
                     Political correctness is like six million band aids when just a bit of surgery is what is needed. Honesty surgery to the body politic. Out of many...one. UNITED states. United people. god has nothing to do with it.
                    Would my southern Mediterranean self be insulting the pasty white northerners from England and Ireland if I appropriate their customs?  Am I the right kind of white? Is there a wrong kind of white? Holy shit, I'm getting confused! 
                   What if my DNA profile shows I’m from Egypt or India? Quite a few people thought my dad looked like Anwar Sadat and I look like my dad. The point I am going to try to make is that some of us are going to use whatever we damn well please from whatever culture we want to. 
                    "Life is tough, get a helmet" Dennis Leary.  
                 

                     
               B}   THE VITAL ENERGY OF DEMOCRACY
         One prism of understanding the American Constitution is when you can comprehend why we don't put the Ten Commandments on court building walls, as fervent christian zealots want. As I said before, the founding revolutionaries excoriated and eviscerated religions creepy grasp on the VITAL ENERGY OF DEMOCRACY in the United States. Clergy has been coercive for five hundred years in America, and forced conversion has been normalized. 
             The Founding Documents is where the actual spirit of Liberty was born. The Founding Revolutionaries were most decidedly in favor of the separation of church and state, and Liberty was the Vanguard of the Revolution, not the bible. Jefferson showed his scorn for the clergy by making a Jesus Bible that deleted all the miracles but kept the common sense kindness. 



           The one constant that all the founding revolutionaries believed, was that religion was too often a corrupting influence on government, and they were determined to keep the clergy at arm’s length in this new country they eventually called The United States.         Freedom of religion was to protect YOU, from ANY coercive majority religion. The forced conversions of islam and christianity was foremost in the FOUNDERS thoughts with the bloodthirsty Ottoman Empire actively rampaging and the Christian Inquisition was still in the news in the late 1700's when the American revolution occurred.
          It could be Quakers or Hindus 500 years from now, no  religion, period, insisted the Founding Revolutionaries. 
                  EVER! 
         This was truly on their minds as the founding documents were drawn up. No invisible ruler in the United States.
Careful Joe, could be a bomb in that collar


Capitalism has failed the world and depleted it's resource base.


          I don't want police cars to say In God we Trust. I don’t want them to say In Allah we Trust either, a hundred years from now, or in Krishna we trust three hundred years from now, if you get what I’m saying. When our gracious islamic brothers and sisters want to kneel and pray 5 times a day at work or in the public commons, I have every right to object to this practice. because I think banning prayer in the common spaces would be covered by the Ninth Amendment which is guided by judicial precedence. Your constitutional rights end where mine begin. Keep your prayers in your pants and don't wave them around in public.
            Hey, I can pray five times a day too, and I guarantee you, it is disconcerting to hear my freedom of religion because I pray to my Metal Gods at full volume.  
              Guess what? The best way to keep Sharia Law out of this country is to keep Biblical Law out of our Laws and Statutes and Ordinances. Take “In God We Trust” off our money, for crying out loud. Stop forcing politicians to use the Bible, for Christs sake, for oath swearing, are you kidding me? We are not one nation under god.  We are many united as one.  Sharia Law can only gain a foothold  if knucklehead republicans insist on encoding Biblical Law. Leave shit alone! You Lost to the Secular Enlightenment.





               
          Before this foray into the white people controversies, I want it known I love everybody. Well, not really. There's a meme that goes "somebody out there loves you. Not me, but somebody must."  
           Vanishing cultures around the world say, "Hey we had a fine system here before Columbus came along; didn't need y'all."   Tens of millions of Native Americans died from smallpox and other diseases brought by the POS conquistadors in the 1500's, even before Virginia was invaded in 1609 by the British. 
              Colonialism by rich white people proceeded once the European Commons was absconded with, (it takes money to make money), and then Industrial Capitalism came along and that destructive system has disrupted virtually every culture in the world since. Consumed the Market Socialism that had controlled commerce. 
            Common area street markets, mom and pop shops that knew their customers and household industry producing the necessities of life in every community had worked with varying degrees of success since time immemorial and provided what was needed without filling our dumps and oceans with plastic trash,
              In years past, most white people were tyrannized by a local despot such as a Prince Priest or Duke that parasitized off their industrious labor. Poor people inventing things, and the already rich making the profits.   
                 It's always been this sick strain of dogmatic religiosity, the notorious implementation of Manifest Destiny, that fueled this global empire. The gleeful clergy worm tonguing their way to power and influence. 
            



        
            Europe was Pagan and White and Africa was Pagan and black for 30,000 years. Nearby, Mecca became a great Pagan meeting place for polytheists of all colors to commingle, and there was no religion in that marketplace because Pagans didn't have wars over the gods and goddesses.  
        Religious people say the Pagans were corrupt and lawless during that period in Mecca before Mohammad.  Read that as, having fun.  Remember that Islam and Christianity basically started in the same neighborhood. These were crazy brown people getting all violent with the heat 'n shit. They became established near Jerusalem,  Mecca and Constantinople. THEN those crazy brown bastards invaded White Pagan Europe and Black Pagan Africa. 


             Back to this cultural appropriation nonsense. Culture is as important as climate and the two will clash, collide and confront. So I ask myself, what is my culture? I find out I cannot have Dreads, hunt seals, or be a Buddhist monk or any of the 6,000 other things that non-whites do.  

         We cannot appropriate the customs of other cultures willy-nilly, say neo-liberal totalitarians, or we risk being publicly chastised and ostracized, it seems. The Liberal PC crowd is brainwashing its minions saying white people have to like only white people stuff, or be prepared to be corrected. Don't insult other cultures by copying their traditions, is the basis of the scolding. 
           Trying to run through the swamp here, just keep going. Don't get bogged down. Nobody is right if everybody is wrong.
          My favorite religious practice that I have found inspirational is a Pagan religion from Lithuania. It’s called Romuva today, but this ancient folk religion has ALWAYS been there as folk tradition, and importantly, Lithuania was the last European country to be christianized. Pagan traditions survived.
                  On Romuva forums though, I find out that they don’t want to know you, if you are not Lithuanian. I can't be authentic in their eyes, you know? Same thing with Native Americans and Nordic Pagans. They want to see blood.
                      Natives and Nordics often also similarly believe they are reincarnated within their family clan. But eternal skeptic that I am, if I say to someone that reincarnation couldn't possibly occur within a family or clan, people get miffed, they don't want to hear it.  
                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ZqZVunCb4
I have been attracted to Northern European Pagan traditions, but have lived in the warmer part of the United States for half my life, in USDA zone nine(Soon zone 10 with global warming) but they are not quite relevant for southern climates when our planting season starts in October and ends in May.  
          My thing is about bringing these northern European traditions down south and translating them into USDA zone 9/10 kind of stuff. Traditions that white, (read that not christian) Pagans had before the brown christians and brown islamics invaded Europe, is what I am trying to discover. 
                   The indigenous Europeans and Africans got invaded the same way the North American indigenous people got invaded, but historians won't point that out to you. This is one of those hidden truths, their lies of omission. Pagans were slaughtered, their sacred places buried or destroyed by these invading brown hordes. These lunatic brown barbarians. NONE OF THE APOSTLES WERE WHITE, Remember?

           Before all that mess, there was the kind prophet from the Essene People nearly 2,000 years ago. He was an anomaly at the time, preaching about peace and freedom and being good to our neighbors and shit, and this is why Jesus became a viral celebrity after his death or disappearance.⇎  People were digging it and hidden by historians, is the nature of Jesus' early followers.
           Back then, the people were generally sick of all the coercion and bullshit rules they had to live by with Judaic Law and the, generally fair but randomly brutal and indiscriminate Pagan Roman rules.                    
          
        Patriarchal forms of Christianity kept wedging themselves into the circle of truths discussed by Jesus and, eventually, they stole the vitalness of his energy. Jesus was esteemed by women and slaves who were the early christians along with the other downtrodden in society. The peaceful Essenes were his people. The Essenes refused to slaughter animals, live, in the common market for instance. The Essenes were also reputed to be vegetarians.
           In years to come, the Gnostics believed in only Jesus, and they proclaimed  that the old testament god was an imposter. A Poser. It became a  battle between the energetic Gnostics and the Patriarchal Paulines, but the Gnostics got snitched out and outmaneuvered by the Paulines. 
            The Gnostics were the christians who were thrown thrown to the Lions because the Paulines privately outed them to authorities. Christians killing their own by 200 A.D. 

            Here is where it gets dicey for me. I would like to ask, what in the heck IS white culture? We know we can’t say it. Can’t have a White television channel, that's ra’ist, right?  So if I want to say I am extolling the best of what white culture could possibly be, that’s ra'ist once again. What is white culture anyhow, and how come I can't talk about it? How is it everyone else has a culture and I don't? 
            For that matter, I'm not a vet, or a biker, or a Rotarian, or affiliated with any group. I'm a UU, that's true. Thank God for them. 
           It seems that we can no longer even talk about white culture because the discussion of it is ra'ist and this is what the regular working folks are puzzled and pissed about. Everybody else exulting and exalting their particular cultures while white people have to shut the hell up because white culture represses all cultures. 😒



             Conservatives think black lives matter has charged the general atmosphere with racial division, when it is the patriarchal white system that has been sick for hundreds of years  with the gangrenous pus of discrimination, division and exclusion, the wounds that never heal. 
          Academia’s politically correct city slicker liberal says, if we "do things from other cultures, we are stealing from them" and that's how this newly concocted horror of cultural appropriation came to be. Oppressed brown people laugh and say white culture is genocide and factories.  However, they have yet to explain what white culture is. The Culture Police need to tell me the right way to do things, so you know, email me, you over credentialed eggheads.↭

           From bullfighting in Spain, to Greek pottery, to Laplanders and their Reindeer, these are just a couple of the corners of European culture. But wait, my ancestors were from the Azores, and that is a whole 'nother corner of the world, out in the Atlantic. 
         Recent discoveries of pre-Portuguese artifacts has me wondering who had these boats to travel that far so long ago? The Phoenicians, the Polynesians? The ancient Iberians? Mali in Africa reportedly had an 800 ship Navy that sailed far and wide well before Columbus so it was probably them or Vikings looking for warmer ports. 
           Don’t know when the original settlers got there, but the Azores are 900 miles out into the ocean, away from Europe. As part of Portugal, it's European, I reckon, and the Portuguese moved there in the 1500's. 
            My kin have been fishing and farming in the Azores for untold generations, and I am going to guess my poor ass peasant ancestors did not profit from the Portuguese slave trade. Chances are a local despot taxed their harvest bounty. 
          Going back even further in time, it turns out that Jewish people civilized Portugal about 1500 years ago and gave them a written language, and this was part of the evolution of Portuguese culture. This begs the question, are Jewish customs okay for me to use? Can I dress my child up as a Talmud Scholar on Halloween? Would Jewish people be offended? This whole article started as a Halloween skit.
Jesus loves all the little hands of the world

           Portugal has seen many migrations of Greek and Egyptian sailors the last 3000 years when it was known as Iberia.  
            So consider this, Portugal is actually closer to Mali in Africa than Norway in Europe. The Azores is closer to New Jersey than Greece. So needless to say I am scratching my head

                I am presumably white, yet the first Mexican to play American Major League Baseball, shared my last name, Mel Almada. Mexicans are brown right, derived from Spain? Spain is closer to Switzerland than The Azores. Therefore people from Spain cannot appropriate culture from Switzerland but I can, because Portuguese people are allegedly white and Spaniards are brown? What? They're not Hispanic? I'm getting confused! 
           Hispanic people can celebrate Cinco de Mayo with it's cultural link to Mexico, but French and Portuguese people cannot since that is cultural appropriation? We need some explanations here. I see this shit on Facebook, everybody yelling at each other and getting nowhere.


 

           But that's what Liberals do. It can be called enlightened despotism, and its their intention that they are doing things for your own good. This is how Democrats absorb every good radical impetus into it's managed maw. Calm down radicals, we got this, say the Democrats, but they have been feckless, ineffectual do nothings who can't stand up to Neo-con bullying. Over two decades of feel good, gauzy nothingness. They couldn't counter the GOP "Contract on America" in 1995 or the Tea Party buffoons in 2010 and have been mute since, steadily losing governorships and state legislatures.

This is why it has to be third party or bust. ⥁

           South of the Azores are the Madeira Islands that are primarily composed of black people. Further south than that are the Canary Islands whose people were slaughtered into extinction by the Spanish who were freaked out by the very strange people they encountered there and they were immediatly compelled to kill them all.  WTF! Canary Island customs and language were barely preserved because of the ferocity of the Spaniards attack. 
               Spaniards were even more freaked out that the Canary Islanders were Brown people and not Black people seeing how far south they were. How could that be? It’s been speculated that the Catalans and Basques and other genetically isolated populations were scattered cultural remnants of Atlantis and were allegedly related to the mysterious Canary Islanders. http://www.ancient-atlantis.com/guanche/
              Back to the beginning of the story then. What can I dress my child up as for Halloween with all this noise about cultural appropriation?  All these insulted demographics. First, it seems people speaking for American Native Indians are the very most offended by cultural appropriation on  Halloween. We are warned Indian Princess is now out as a costume for Halloween unless you are 1/16th Native American. Or is it 1/8th? So many rules.
I evolved, so can you.



           Even if the people who cluster-fucked Custer are heroes of mine, I cannot honor their customs? Or do whatever I want with their celebrations and ceremonies? Am I allowed to use dream catchers or not play drums like Native Americans?  Take John Trudell off my Youtube playlists? The Native Americans are the true owners of this continent.
            I can’t call myself Two Crows because I don’t have the genetic heritage? I fully understand that names of great respect are given to people who deserve it, and White Eagle is one such name. 
           When I used to live 15 miles from the O'odham People,  I named my roommate Eagle that Walks with his 30/20 vision, and I was Four Eyes. You know, who cares.
            One of the funniest notions from the politically correct cultural appropriation police, as I mentioned, is that even Yoga is now cultural appropriation! That's the one that made me realize that they are completely full of shit and my eyes were finally fully opened to this Brainwashing. The traditional stance of Liberals is managed Liberty. They rule us magnanimously “for our own good.” They help the poor for their own good. They imagine they are the salve in a sick world. 
             They will save the environment for the good of the planet they will say, but what they are actually doing is creating six-figure jobs for them and all their friends and eventually, a world regulatory body that a carbon tax would yield.  You send money to preserve habitat and more than half of it goes to an elite white lollygagger and their do-gooder foundation. Recently we've seen that every famous person in Washington has a son or daughter that works in the Ukraine. George Carlin's "its a big club and you're not in it"  becomes more apparent every day. 



             Liberals want to create a carbon tax and a sprawling world bureaucracy so their compatriots all have six-figure jobs and their kids will have six-figure jobs as neo-Liberal institutions grow like coral colonies under the guise of saving everything. We have to be independent, we have to create a third party. Community based, general assembly. Call it the Independent  Majority Party. Go ahead steal the idea, as long as independents can start having a say in the Liberal Conservative debate.
           The problem is that we have reached the end of the line with managed liberty, enlightened despotism, and cronyism. We actually want anarchy, which is the absence of coercion. We got it now. We know how to shop thriftily and knowledgeably. We are far more discerning now when it comes to what we eat and what we add to our lives.People just know so much more today than they did 50 years ago, so much awareness of many small but important daily issues such as food and hygiene.
             But yoga is cultural appropriation?  I don’t know what my Azorean ancestors did to stretch in the morning, but maybe the exercises were very much like Qi Gong or Yoga in their movements. Unfortunately, I will never know what exercises I am allowed to do because all the records of Azorean exercise have disappeared.  No exercise tradition handed down. 😟
             I am clearly not Chinese so my cheesy reinterpretations of Qi Gong mixed with Yoga are clearly insulting on so many levels. I add light weights and call it Yogaerobics. Life sucks. Get a helmet.
              Meanwhile, what about that Halloween costume? Maybe my child can dress up as a Fish Monger or a Fish Mongers Wife since my children are Portuguese and French. They can rinse some Bacalhau (dried salted Cod), and carry it around since it’s said Portuguese people are able to tolerate the smell of rotting fish better than any other culture. "And what are you little boy?" 
               
             Then across the planet, what happens if some Saudi Arabian mother tells her child at Halloween time that he is not allowed to be a fishmonger since that would be a cultural appropriation from white people. 
                In India, there a child pleading to his parents. “It is NOT cultural appropriation for me to dress in the style of the ‘Rockabilly culture’. Mother… I INSIST …it is my choice. Please listen to this and tell me you don’t feel the energy. I love Rockabilly!"              
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZEt7J5RNs&list=PLD1018BBF28138B27&index=7

IT’S ALL RIDICULOUS AND WE KNOW IT.
 Not Rockabilly but all this tight ass whining.

              
               




         The word is that Newt Gingrich is going to have a new Un-American Activities Committee and there will be money for his goons to investigate private citizens, but hypocritically, none for the Meals on Wheels program.  
        The NSA can screen every email that discusses “secession” and you will find yourself under investigation. The white van with the tinted windows down the street listening to what you are talking about. (Heads up they ditched the obvious and hot black vans.)
           The FBI doing a background check on your son, taking pictures with their glasses cam. "Has he ever said anything bad about America?"
           But right-wing deplorables go yeehaw whenever someone talks about Texas secession, so it would seem to me that we could talk about an anarchic secession all we want with our First Amendment protections. 
           Vermont (The Republic of Vermont 1777-1791) has an active secessionist movement currently. In Canada, the very large province of Quebec has voted on separating from Canada but so far they are remaining as part of the biggest country in the world.  Quebec and Vermont united in 
                Lord knows the current situation in the United States is dire. The countries largest demographic, dumb white people, have opened the floodgates to all kinds of kooks and deplorables and your well educated white nationalists.  Can you believe it, the fucking Nazis!
              After beating back white male authoritarianism for 50 years, it has come alive again like an alien popping out of Americas chest or something, with the electoral victory of Stupid Bigly. 
                          
                2008 was one of Americas most difficult years as we were mired in the abyss of the two ill-conceived, unconstitutional wars and billion dollar businesses failing as the housing market crashed.   



             Don’t even mention reducing the military to anybody. Our foreign policy is about the 1,000-year-old Holy War between Islam and Christianity, and I am stunned people are oblivious to that fact.  A new Counter-Revolution needs to happen against this religious right wing anti-communist kookism that has ran world affairs since World War 2. 

      C}   THERE IS NO RELIGION IN THE MARKETPLACE

                     Regular folks created Rockabilly and its enthusiasm took over the world, along with surf music a few years later. We want to sing and dance and play rock and roll in the garage, nobody gives a shit about white supremacy and immigrants. Fuck your god and fuck your racism.  This unconstitutional intrusion of being under god and in god we trust, needs to be dealt with. Elvis, Charley Parker and Buddy Holly are our triple gods. Poor people gonna do it again.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgGE5GD4iRUkdlPR0Ai70EfNGFtKbfCzd
           We are going to have a revolution in music to get the white people back on track. Rock and Roll was created by the fusion of black boogie-woogie and white hillbilly music and created the greatest art form the world has ever known. That’s right Rockabilly fathered rock and roll and they boogied all night long.
                      "I knew if I had the chance that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while"  The mission is to go into the heart of rural culture and de-program these bewildered hillbillies and the flummoxed flatlanders that voted for Stupid Bigly.  I’m starting a Hillbilly band for the purpose of dancing but also commonality and consensus. Community Democracy inspired by the Black Panthers.


         White liberals overcompensating with their white guilt will tell you black people invented rock and roll. It’s even racist to suggest otherwise. Rock and roll was invented when all the sub-genres of music came together, but particularly boogie woogie and hillbilly music. 


           Some people say Rocket 88 by Ike Turner is considered the very first rock and roll song in 1952. Some say rock around the clock in '54 was first, among others. However, I suggest the Delmore Brothers song "Hillbilly Boogie” in 1946.  This is when hillbilly and boogie-woogie were fused together and the song was about playing the boogie-woogie on the guitar, instead of the piano. That would make rock and roll over 70 years old. 
           Bluegrass, Blues, Western Swing, Boogie Woogie and Hillbilly music were streams that fed the river that became known as Rock and Roll. "If you don't want my Peaches, Honey, don’t shake my tree".   
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgGE5GD4iRUkdlPR0Ai70EfNGFtKbfCzd 


                 
          All the streams for social justice and workers rights are currently flowing into one river. If it isn't directed it will flood everything with confusion as it does today.
                                           
          One of the first labor strikes was in 1834 by children demanding an 11-hour limit to the workday. Okay? Since then, workers fought and died to work a 40-hour week and a weekend to look forward to, because nobody should be slaves. Newt Gingrich however, would have poor children work in their schools as janitors while the rich kids go to Sea Camp. Dignity for the worker voter citizen has not been embedded in our culture but it will be soon because that is how a workers revolution will work.  
             
               The 2 billion working poor in the world are suffering so the Donald tr***s of the world can have gold toilets. We have had about enough of their shit and the long-awaited worldwide worker's revolution is about to begin. Thanks to Stupid Bigly the workers now know the rich would crush them if they could. The only problem is white workers who have been voting against themselves during this Reagan Era of Greed. 
          White male supremacy operatives have wormed their way into our political, law enforcing, and educational systems with right-wing brainwashing. This is why an outreach is needed and why I am starting a Hillbilly band. Why we all need to reach into their fox ‘hole den and pull them out into the sunlight.
               Other white people have maliciously maligned hillbillies and many of these mountain people are actually industrious and fun-loving redneck survivalists.  They were Americana, you know, Rt 66 and everything uniquely American such as blues and rockabilly died as the Interstate Highways favored large corporations. 
            So today, because of all the fights for equality in the last 50 years, we are theoretically all on an equal footing. Unfortunately, cops are still racist, and the whole system is still toxic. It's sad to realize this, but the worst problem is white intolerance of Mexicans, witches, handicapped people, and just about every demographic going. I always thought they were the snowflakes since nearly everything makes them uncomfortable. What the hell is wrong with these people? Bricks in the wall of their refutable racism.



            One strategy by White Nationalists since 1960 was to make sure felons became unable to vote, and there are now 3 million black felons finding it difficult to get work and unable to vote. This is one of the reasons why Driving while Black can be a fatal enterprise. Then the honkies say welfare is what broke up black families. 
                  Many of us have been shocked that so much racism still exists. My old relatives are dead, my Unitarian brothers and sisters embrace all, even crazy me. My children are post-everything and I have learned a lot from them. My 20 customers are all jovial, nature loving people and we never discuss politics. So I am surrounded by kind loving people and don't hear bigotry anymore because I am about sick of nasty white people and won't go where they are. 
           I saw in my grandmother a person who was bigoted against blacks then finally realized, "every group of people has its good and bad."  She even had a lawn jockey once upon a time. It seems that nearly everyone saw the absurdity of being racist in my lifetime and we were living liberty and justice for all from here on out. I don’t hear any racism anymore, honestly. I did hear the “he’s the wrong color” meaning white discrimination at Wal Mart the other day. I let those kind odd comments hang in the air like the rotten fruit they are.
               The white enclaves known as the Fox News echo chamber continues to delude the trump humping bumpkins, the cock holsters of gangrenous greed and authoritarian excess.
If he could have been honest


                Thomas Jefferson is one of my 23 gods.  Thank God, Biblical Law is not constitutional, or we would not have any freedoms at all. This is what the warriors for Christ do not seem to understand. Biblical Law and Sharia Law are kissing cousins and they would be the death of me, for heresy and blasphemy.  Christian "Patriots" will be thanking God for atheists when Sharia Law finds they hit a stone wall anywhere they try to establish Sharia Law in the United States. Because the atheists were there fighting for the Constitution. real patriots fighting for us right here in this country. Thank you for your service.
                 Thanks to the Founding Revolutionaries, we are given a shield to protect us from coercive religious authority, because otherwise, heretics would be in prison and gay witches would be dragged to the center of town and burned for entertainment. That really hurts you know, to be burned alive. Or scraped to death with clamshells like Pagan scholar Hypatia was by a christian mob.
             The influence of Paganism is everywhere, and yet this word stirs up the ancient hatred, a brainwashing and induced delirium that has been going on for many hundreds of years, by the most fraudulent, illegitimate authority in history.  I keep wondering when the right wing kooks are going to discover the millions of Pagans and Pagan tolerant and Pagan curious people there are in our country.  You know booga booga, demons and all that shit.
             The founding revolutionaries subverted religions insidious grip on power. Christians would still be burning the Witches, I am sure, and this inspired the Bill of Rights so religion could be marginalized once and for all. On the internet, I find the witch demographic as the friendliest by far, and the most gracious and wise group of people that I have ever encountered.  
              Trumpoons will add Pagans to their Gay, Islamic, and Mexican list of people to harass and we will then realize we haven’t advanced much since the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 or the Zoot Suit riots of 1943.
            There was friendliness and trade between the natives and the roughneck pioneers at first.  The founding revolutionaries were familiar with native freedoms. From their pulpits of hate, the ‘elitist clergy’ actively promoted the slaughter of the Red Man to all would listen. The slick talking, rubber jawed, city slicker preachers had a convenient target for focusing the rage of the  Pioneer peasants in the New World. The Native Americans were seen as far too pagan to be managed and assimilated and being extremely earth-centered, they could never really be Christians so the idea was to kill them all and let god sort them out. 
         Washington Jefferson Adams Madison and their ilque were the actual greatest generation. The complacency and blind obedience of the misnamed greatest generation gave the world 20,000 nuclear weapons. It gave us a surveillance nation contrary to the bill of rights. Normandy survivors worked in weapons plants that have filled the world with weapons and gave them a great retirement. It's ironic they gave everything they could to fight fascism during WW2 but allow it today with the neo-con republickin' coup of our government leading the way.
         Subservience and fealty to corporate greed have destroyed unions but greatly benefited stockholders. Meanwhile, our young people (parent of 5 here) can far better articulate why racism is wrong and why sexism is incomprehensible. Millenials will not allow "war without end" that Boomers have allowed. They mistrust the pedophiles (catholics) and the demagogues (baptists) that claim to be christians. They have far more expansive vocabularies than high school graduates of 1940 that memorized Shakespeare but accepted "colored bathrooms". 


            There is no comparison in my mind between these nasty retirees I meet who have replaced "feelings" with fear and submission to authority.  Men are taught to crush their feelings and rumble inside with restrained emotion. When I was 20, I remember being oddly proud that I hadn't cried since I was ten years old. 
            There has never been a generation that has allowed so much bad policy to prevail or accumulated so much wealth. Myopic vision of short-sighted opportunists has left us with radioactive waste, plastic filled oceans and mercury-tainted fish, leading us to the brink of environmental collapse.               
        Sorry bro, but I've taken it upon myself to defend Millennials when I see them maligned at the expense of the close minded dupes, lackeys and sell outs of the older generations.
        “A psychotic pall so widespread, it was assumed to be normal” John Trudell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLaxhRmq1wQ

                                      DOG WHISTLES      
    Hillbilly is a word for white people.  Metal is another word for white people.  Didn’t know that, did you?  Boogie Woogie still stirs my soul, and Hillbilly and Metal music know how to build up momentum.  I like what I like when I like it and it does not mean I am a racist if I like white music or make a white playlist.   I'm still trying to figure out what the hell is white culture anyways. 
           Then sure, Barack Obama. The problem there,  is that his white half was sensationalized as communist, and then ignored.  During my adult life, white people are often on the ropes about how they are not racists and white men are constantly accused of being sexist along with being racist.   
             Liberal city slicker whites fall over themselves overcompensating on the equality issue, gushing over non-white everything. What is white culture anyways? I mean really. European? Japanese people are pretty white aren't they, but crazy white people put them in camps during WW2 and the media convinced regular folks that the Japanese couldn't be trusted. The fight for freedom, remember?
             Not many people have been as critical of the whites as I have and WASPy greed masters have been my primary target for many years. Their Capitalism is Americas worst nightmare and I've always called it Predatory Capitalism.  
                  I want to delve into white issues because I see some perspectives that can get us to a higher level, but it is nearly impossible to talk about white people issues without somebody blowing a gasket. I've heard mostly negative things about white people for decades and it does get tiring. I wish people could accept each other.  Tolerance is not enough. One world one people.  Unity without hierarchy. Workers, citizens, and voters “I don’t want to spend my life being a color.” Michael Jackson.



             Now, in the 21st century, our modern sensibilities are not able to comprehend how women were not allowed to vote until 1920. People are finally able to embrace women equally as men, as we should embrace the Goddess as well as the God. Whatever.  
                 Lately, however, I have been visiting these alt right websites and they are as angry as ever and they have a desire to marginalize women and they praise the  homebodies. I mean, haven't these people been in the working world? I deal with female property managers and Administrators and teachers and writers. It's a different world now. Women even are welcome on boats these days. 
              Those aren't demons, we call them germs now.
              In 1789, just before the bill of rights had been formally ratified, southern racists were having a tantrum and would not sign on as part of the 'United States' unless they could keep their slaves. Northerners thought this unfair since they had to pay their employees. Labor was dear in that, as yet un-pillaged North America. 
                  During the Civil War, the 1% of the southern population that owned slaves, convinced the poor whites to fight for them. I can't help but think of this lackey attitude when I see some 'rebel's' flag fluttering behind them as they drive by. Brainwashed bigoted chumps. No offense. I roll my eyes when a "Smoke truck" sends black smoke into the air.
             In 1789, northern economies were primarily community-based and agrarian. You could buy, sell, repair and trade nearly everything that you needed to run the family farms right in your home town.  Household Industry involved 80% of the population. Before factories, people made products at home and the Industrial North had yet to arrive. The steam engine hadn't even been invented yet or the cotton gin, so to a Northerner, slavery was an unsavory and unfortunate reality that needed to change.
             Unitarian ministers were prominent in the safe house underground railway movement and the last person arrested for heresy in 1848 was a Unitarian. Always there fighting for social justice. Onwards to 1960 when only 10% of the black population in Mississippi was registered to vote, prompting the need for civil rights legislation in a country founded on freedom. Constant, incoming tides of coercion from white male supremacists who continue to do harm. A persistent stain in the fabric of democracy.
              In 2008, a liberal hating lunatic burst into a Unitarian Universalist church with a gun killing two and injuring seven. The shooter, Adkisson, stated that he had targeted the church because of its "liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country." 
                      Racists are traitors to Liberty. 
      Freedom and Compassion got married and their first child was named Liberty. 
              In 1895, children were working in factories and Protestant CEO's took great delight in hiring the Catholic wave of immigrants from 1875 to 1895, and recreated European feudalism in the cities of America. Back to the right kind of white, only the ruling class considered themselves privileged and they hated Catholics.  
              Two kinds of white people? Privileged whites and working whites. The ruling class and the working class. I have Facebook friends who are quite antagonistic to whites and I want to say, hey don’t raise your babies to be racist. They learn that shit, it’s not in the genes. 
          Greedy oppressors and yeah,  we know all that. I saw in my youth how white people participated in the marginalization of handicapped people, and keeping blacks out and making the Browns pick fruit with no opportunities to further themselves or become citizens. The Yellow Peril is another embarrassing chapter of white privilege in a previous era. With Enlightenment at hand, we have become post-race and post-gender and participation in prejudice is a thing of the past. I had thought. Workers voters citizens and children, remember?
              As a teen, there was a disturbing amount of bigotry abounding, mostly in school ans church, with my Uncle Joe being the most prominent with his antagonism of Black people.  
             Time waits for no man and it got to be the 70's and   most went on a success track, I rejected the white-collar world and the sphere of college edumacated idiots.
             I was content to work a second shift janitorial job because the steady paycheck gave me enough money to do what I really wanted to do. Ride my bicycle, join book clubs and visit book stores. I went through some nice guitars and took jazz guitar lessons.
               At work, my friend Dewitt would say 'you got?' or 'I got' and we'd take a nice long break when the work was nearly done. One great time was when we said forget the work and we all watched the entire Young / Ali fight with much discussion when it was done. Young won, but judges felt Ali needed to be beaten decisively to have the crown taken from him. Everybody loves Ali but he lost we decided.
                In the 80's bigotry was viewed as favorably as a canker sore or really bad breath, and in the (non-white collar) working world, the need to survive was a common struggle with all colors and all genders and we all helped each other best we could and listened to each others stories.  The working world, not the white shirted parasite class.
            Go to bourgeois(white) locales and the Ivegotmine upper middle-class whites will be uncomfortable with a black dude walking around with a "kill all the cops" T-shirt. Because white people suck his facebook friends yell in caps. So are we doomed to this atrocity and reprisal hamster wheel? 
             Try to conceptualize that the ruling whites are also standoffish with me and my hillbilly truck, my nasty face hair, and my Union cap confounds the confederate, flag waving racists that remain. The North won bitches, we are the UNITED States and no you can't have slaves and if you need to be beaten again it will happen.  
          What I'm trying to say is don't be my Uncle Joe and perpetuate mistrust of other people. whatever your race is. My diatribe about Brown people was to illustrate the ridiculousness of color issues. I get into some interesting conversations wearing my Union cap. The South will rise again they say, and I say 'and do what exactly?' #unitywithouthierarchy

         Was it my ancestral whites fishing and farming on the Azore Islands during the American Civil War that were the slave masters? You check on this, but the sources of prejudice from white people come primarily from White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. WASPS. As the much discriminated Irish and Italians found out, you must participate in the system, you will no longer be targeted. They created the mafia to supply the liquor White wasp people needed to perpetuate their atrocities.  
                              DONUT  SHOP PUNDITS 
            They needed a smooth talking anti worker, anti- environmentalist who makes white people feel good, to run for president. Someone the 'white guy with a clipboard' demographic can embrace. Someone the cranky old white people in the Donut Shop can quote.  
           Conversely, the black and brown donald trumps have raised their children to hate 'the man' and 'whitey' when a large percentage of white people are like, what the hell? Race can't be an issue anymore, anywhere, and racism needs to be addressed and the white nationalists are talking out their ass of hate. The good white people are emerging after 35 years of sleepwalking through this military, corporate, and right wing religious coup of America. The aberrant tumor that made corruption legal.
              Time for all of us to unite as workers/voters/and citizens. Out of many, ONE. "Is anybody in there? Nod if you can hear me" 
                Stupid Bigly is walking into a fascist police state 35 years in the making, so I find the dumptrump movement a waste of energy.  El-Rushbo has paved the way with Alex Jones and others right behind him. Roger Ailes has been our Joseph Goebbels but the difference is this.  25 years of brainwashing is already in place by Ailes alone.  Ailes was his program director and, Limpbaugh endlessly repeated phrases such as 'the rich are the job creators', ad nauseum. A lie that became gospel to his truth-impaired fans,  believable because of the relentlessness of the repetition. 
             Then at Fox News, Roger Ailes’ motto was to brainwash the nation with a white male supremacy agenda without them knowing it.  Three guidelines for brainwashing are repetition, repetition, repetition. 'The lies became truth and Fox News Director Ailes created an army of Herman Goering’s wannabes, sitting in their living room with their gun in their lap, waiting for the liberal bloodbath they are prepared to participate in. How many times has Rush-bo or his callers said "lock and load?" Hundreds of times in the 6 years I listened.
              With an enemy of public education, Devos in the cabinet, Blackwater has now gotten in the inner circle of the White House.  Why would this be, other than anticipating the rise of an elitist Himmler style attack force?  
  A Right Wing International Cadre of Lawless Marauders
            A mercenary army that is already embedded in police departments and the military and is KKK inclined the 3% Warriors for Christ, at the least. Fence keepers and Soldiers of Odin and 984 other hate groups.
              This is what I mean when I say most people have no idea the danger that white nationalists pose. Importantly it’s a white Male supremacy agenda and not a master race thing that includes women. "You are going to bear a child for Hitler and the master race." Instead of a regional conflict, we are looking at a worldwide explosion of war as Putin and Trump divide up the world as slow moving, long term planning China is completely taken by surprise and marginalized.  
            They will do it to "contain China". Therefore, you wake up one day and you can’t get online with your laptop or phone. You turn on the TV and chief executive Stupid Bigly is on every channel explaining the crisis. "China did a very very dumb thing by bombing our refineries with neutron bombs.”  In actuality, Oil and gas companies had sabotaged loosely capped wells and weak pipelines creating environmental havoc then blamed it all on China. 
           We need to be prepared for the unexpected advancement of the right wing coup that has been in place the last 35 years. Personally, I think the golden age of humor, actually #theorangeageofhumor has arrived, as I call it on Facebook.  Lately I have been more pessimistic and I need a song to give me hope.

             Grassroots solidarity will finally blossom with the inspiration of Independent Bernie Sanders and it will be either The Final Slaughter or the worldwide workers union depending on how the battles go.  Stand up or stand down?         
    The nation is certain to be in an uproar if things go really badly. It’s a big ship to turn around but I see a Nixon-Agnew type of exit for our chief executive and the vice chief executive.

                        WHO ARE THE WHITE PEOPLE?
          I research so you don’t have to IS my motto. The search starts with who are the white people?  At first,  I follered the Caucasian People to the Caucasus Mountains they are supposedly derived from. It’s out near Armenia or something. Well, they migrated to Romania and then eventually over the entirety of Europe. 
              Then I found out another branch of the Caucasian People went to India for a couple thousand years and then they came back and took a more Northerly Route than the first Caucasians. I believe these people are the ones referred to as Aryans. This was as the last ice age ebbed and unconventional wisdom has Europe settled much earlier than Conventional Wisdom states. By 14,000 BC the ice age was ebbing and nothing but grass filled meadows were in every valley. 
                 Now I read people from India are closer to Caucasoid than any other genera.  Lithuania to India saw many white people migrating back and forth and there is a secret there I am trying to uncover in the ancient past. One peculiarity is the the Lithuanian language has similarities with Sanskrit is the most prominent archaeological clue.
              There are 25,000-year-old stone houses scattered across Europe and vivid, artistically rendered cave paintings. H.G. Wells discussing the cave painters or Reindeer Men as he called them.
              “They had vivid perceptions, an acute sense of animal form; they had the real artist’s impulse to render. These races of Reindeer Men were in undisturbed possession of Western Europe for a period of at least ten times as long as their interval between ourselves and the beginning of the Christian Era, AND THROUGH ALL THAT IMMENSE TIME THEY WERE FREE TO DEVELOP AND VARY THEIR LIFE TO IT’S UTMOST POSSIBILITIES.”  
          But we are taught that the first "civilized" people were the brown people from the desert filled with crazy religions, remember? Mesopotamia and the cradle of civilization was drilled into our heads in school but the indigenous White People of Europe were the Reindeer People, and possibly descendants of the Grimaldi People of West Africa. 
           Maybe the original Denisovans, or the Neanderthal, but people seem confused when I tell them that it was the brown people and their Holy Rampage of Conquest that disrupted and destroyed the indigenous white people along with the indigenous black people of Africa, and everyone's triple gods and goddesses. Christians are interlopers in Europe and Islamics have been coercing Africans for a thousand years.

            Imagine it’s thousands of years ago and you are a teen with a sense of adventure living in Georgia, south of Russia. Maybe 5000 years ago. You and your posse go off in the spring intending to come back by winter.  You visit the ancient ruins of Atlantis at the north end of the Black Sea. As you approach northern Italy’s mountains you head back after being blocked by the Alps. Then you come across a remnant tribe of Grimaldi People.  The Grimaldi people had migrated from Africa and arrived in Europe 50,000 YA via the Straights of Gibraltar. Yes, black people were among the first Europeans.  
           The ancient cave painters and reindeer hunters had moved east and north, assimilated Neanderthal man, and then met the migrating Caucasians 10,000 years later              as they migrated a little further north in Europe. 
              You spend a night as the guest of the Grimaldi Village and note the children riding the amazing posteriors of the First Homo Sapiens sapiens of Europe.    Then you and the boys stay and forget the way home. So now, ask yourself where did these two sets of people come from? It appears that the first religions and the first cave paintings  occurred in Africa around 60 thousand years ago and a northerly migration out of Africa was also occurring as the Ice Age ebbed away. 
                    In addition, there was an eastern African migration that the Proto- Nubian People had around 100,000 years ago. It is as if there was an evolution of spirit somehow around 120,000 years ago, as Homo sapiens became our final form, Homo sapiens sapiens. H. sapiens sapiens around the world had evolved and ancient prototypes became extinct over the next 100,000  years. Except for Yetis and Bigfoot and the Allegheny Cabbage monster.
             This is where my freedom of religion comes in. I take different threads of very ancient history and try to weave a sensible carpet that suits our purpose. In my religion (from a very ancient secret source), the Goddess Venus arrives on earth on a clamshell, I would guess around 120,000 years ago.  The water levels of the Red Sea were at their lowest point when she arrived as a previous Ice Age was in place.     
                   The humans found it natural to co-operate and share the bounty of fruits and vegetables. Then they traded salt and gemstones, eventually discovering gold and silver. Figs, Jerky, and Palm nuts too. People were not inclined to kill each other like in the movies, but to have a nice day and a quiet night.  
                     So where did white people come from? How about the so-called Yellow People?  Supposedly derived from Denisovans (a separate human species) from Siberia.  Then you realize that for all the folderol about race and wars, we all come from a similar place not really all that long ago geologically speaking. 
                 Evolution is real and not a theory. Where did the Chihuahua come from you ask? That’s right, in less than 20,000 years the wolf became the Chihuahua because of evolution. Humans are also malleable that way. 
               Look at pandas; they all rather look the same. Squirrels, Camels,  and Elephants are indistinct from each other. Squids haven't changed much in 600 million years.
Whereas, cats have genetic variety, and bovines evolved into many different looking ones. I'm saying  some creatures never change or evolve while  others are prone to evolutionary adjustments. 
             Then look at the people in line at 7-11. The pasty white rich people, the drunken painters, the black roofers, Mexican landscapers, nurses and secretaries of every color are in line and I am part of the working class   struggle of the industrious working poor.    

             One question I had was, are there two distinct two white races? They are elite whites and worker whites, but are they the same color? If you look  at who owned the factories where children worked or who owned the plantations or who dumped toxins into watersheds or who stand to make billions off the Keystone Pipeline or who owns the City of London, it has always been the WASP, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. They are the masterminds of world domination.
          They give all Europeans a bad reputation with their cold, bleached egomania. My people from the Azores fished and farmed for centuries before coming to America as did many other Europeans running from the religious kooks.  They were simple forest folk that became Hillbillies when they came to America.                                                                     The black/white schism had me wondering what would be a way to unify all people.
             In Africa, going back to a tribe 60,000 years ago, and to the Reindeer People who were the indigenous Europeans 15 to 40 thousand years ago, these Pagans lived with their triple gods and goddesses and people of Europe and Africa had very similar lifestyles for thousands of years.  Tens of thousands of years. As I explained, the Grimaldi People were the first black people to inhabit Europe and those descendants of Pygmies assimilated with the people they met as they drifted eastward and it's why Mediterranean whites are shorter than northern whites. 
                What happened was that the so-called civilized people of the Middle Eastern area created capitalism with their overproduction of wheat and began invading the lands of the indigenous Europeans and indigenous Africans. These brown people invaded the villages of black and white tribes as they moved northwards, westwards, and southwards. Thousands of years later, Islam and Christianity (those crazy desert people) usurped peaceful pagans with violent, forced conversion and leaving millions of slaughtered pagans in their wake. Black and white alike. Unity without hierarchy----heed the call. We will be too powerful if we work together.
                 Compare the 13 goals for a witch, to let's say, the 10 commandments where the whiny god of Canaan exhibits his jealousy of other gods, and is quite prepared to torture you with fire for eternity if you get on his bad side. Then there is islam where a husband is allowed to beat or kill his female property. Can you see why both of these bloodthirsty religions have demonized Paganism and Witchcraft over these many years? We are the competition and an injury to one is an injury to all.
                They needed a scapegoat. There are no demons in the craft as far as I can tell and I’ve been studying and practicing Paganism for years.  Racism is the new kid on the block compared to Pagan Hatred.                                             
 The Holy Rampage of Conquest by Islam and Christianity over the Indigenous African people and the Indigenous European tribes is a slaughter your ancestors want you to address. 
                   The Brown invaders became the white usurpers as Pagan cultures were conquered demonized and assimilated as they moved North and West. When these ruling whites got to America, the Native Americans were considered Pagans---plain and simple, and these, upper class ruling whites, were delighted as Baptist Preachers promoted their  genocide. By 1920 the spirit of the Native Americans was broken and they disappeared into movies.
             A book from 1928 called Lady Chatterley’s Lover, describes post-WW1 England. The ruling class has power because they are the most qualified to lead, they told themselves, and don't forget that he who has the gold makes the rules and that is the actual golden rule. 
          In the book I mentioned, the coal miners in the town drag their feet home every day after 12 hours of slavery in unearthly, horrible conditions. The local oligarch, the owner of the mine, looks on their parade of gloom with pity, and repeats that he has “been given the burden of keeping the rabble in line.” 
          Maybe he could give them a free ham for chritsmas and the pitiful masses would be thankful, not realizing the actual criminal class that the Oligarchy is, and the theft of their labor and their lives must never be forgotten and I hope your hear their call.
           Oligarchs are mobsters and criminals when they keep people in chronic poverty. Keeping entire towns impoverished, what kind of asshole does this? Look at these extreme capitalists; they have many WASPS among their ranks. These are the white people that the people of color should be upset with. These are the ones with the control problems. These are the ones to tax to rebuild an entirely new infrastructure.



                START HERE 
The people of the single god theory and their political machinations began burning and banning the meek a long time ago. Hell, they even "burned their own daughters if they playeth the whore" as it says in their book, the Old Testament.  Christians crawled into the exoskeleton of the dying Roman world and became the "Holy" Roman Empire.  
           They banned the Meek in 395 AD and began a thousand year campaign to eradicate the meek and their thousands of gods and goddesses.  A long bloody struggle, it was, till they finally conquered the Lithuanians who were the last remaining Pagans in Europe.  This was in 1384 when the 15-year-old prince of Lithuania married the 12-year-old christian princess of Poland. Sacred fires were kept burning till the last one was extinguished in 1434, it's ashes thrown in the river, just in case.
              They named buildings, rivers, and towns after their saints and they stuck the heads of dead Meek people on poles to convince other Meek people to give up their kind and fun loving cultures. 
             Meanwhile, a little south of the holy empire, the last prophet and the people of the scimitar began THEIR holy rampage of conquest. They considered themselves great warriors but they married little girls and beheaded many of the Meek and we say "yeah right dude, real manly". The ancient stories of the Meek were burned at the library of Alexandria so all traces of them would disappear. This was something Rabbi's, Caliphs, and Bishops could agree on.
           The cross and scimitar invaded the indigenous cultures of the Meek of Africa and the Meek of Europe and took their gold as forced conversion became the order of the day. Their great holy leaders surveyed the world years later, and found that the Meek had finally been subdued, the blood and money cults of Abraham were victorious, and the Meek were subsumed. 
           Today the Meek have begun to make their voices heard. "There is no god" and "there are many gods and goddesses" the Pagans and Atheists declare. These are the new people of the word. The many words of the internet to double check all these con men. 
          Their great goddess holds the lamp of liberty aloft to light the way and the great journey of the Meek has begun, guided by the words of the first true covenant of the people called the mutrfukon United States Constitution, bitches. Every day gets a little brighter as the dawn of civilization approaches and the Meek (today they are known as Pagans and Atheists and Independent thinkers) are cautiously are coming out of hiding to reclaim the cultures of the world. This is the basis of black and white unity. Fuck those Brown People.
                The white WASP elite needs to feel the sting of the workers discontent from the inevitable worker's revolution.  Like in the south during the Civil War, how did less than 2% of the population convince the other 98% that secession and war was necessary?  600,000 deaths for bullshit. Cold-hearted elite, the slave owners, sent the working white people to their gruesome deaths. 
                 Nasty white WASPS opened factories fashioned after slave ships and Catholics such as the Irish and Italian were scorned and abused. In todays America every European country has assimilated itself into the industrial greed machine and the white collar parasite economy perched atop the actual economy. 
                 Maligned no longer, the Meek and their peace loving allies are poised to rule the earth. Ecosystem Stewardship is the word to replace resource gobbling for gold. When the dumb white demographic catches on, we will have another Progressive Revolution and a new attitude regarding wealth. When they realize all wages would go up if we put the 1% in jail. Just for fun. A little profiling, charge them with a felony and tear up their corporate charter.
 
          Unitarian Universalists have no exclusionary ethos like the way hyper-patriarchal Christianity and Islam does. Unitarian Universalists are the kindest people you will ever want to meet. We had a lifelong Muslim visit our UU church and talk with us. Everybody in the congregation is fine with Islamic people worshipping down the street because UU's want to get to know you, not your religious beliefs. UU's embrace all.
            Bring something to the table, some conversation, some volunteer work, that is what the UU’s are about and what freedom of religion is all about. UU's are the American Freedom of Religion ideal.
              Well, we were not impressed with our Muslim visitor as our liberal Reverend asked questions and we listened as the Muslim preacher articulated his Stone Age opinion of women’s equality. The enlightened, liberal Muslim opinion about gay people is that it is up to Allah to judge you. “We cannot judge you. “ Then Allah burns gay people in Hell of course. 

            Catholics and Protestants have been willing to fight for decades in bloody wars in the past, but civil authority has constrained their violent excess in the last century. A Secular framework in the United States has penned in biblical law finally, and has kept it from being implemented.  They are like Wack-A Mole, taking over state legislatures and drunk on needing power. We have to do the same with Islam. Ban them both, get it?  The 9th amendment is about precedent. Use it.