Father Berrigan

I've been thinking of that Father lately. I guess we are all connected. I must have heard him as he passed by my way. He was calling to us, as he was welcomed into eternity.   When people talk about non violent resistance they are describing paradoxical heroism Not someone standing on a podium looking brave. But someone facing real injustice naked and afraid and offering up themselves as a sacrifice; to a false god of injustice clothed as justice.   The purpose of non violent resistance is to illustrate the fatal flaw in this body of rules that styles itself law to illustrate why unjust laws are unjust by taking on the consequences and pain. To take on the pain and suffering So that others might be spared.   He took on that pain He offered himself up to suffering again and again To Broken bones, and broken lives, To incarceration and arrest To hard time spent in meditation more isolating than a mountain top. Facing hatred, fear and being shunned.   He broke laws to uphold higher moral laws Taking on the consequences of his defiance To Illustrate the awful reality behind the screen. It takes real courage and sacrifice. To do the things he did meant paying the cost. To illustrate injustice clothed in invisible cloth. Require the courage to walk naked into the abyss. To take on a pain, as if being stabbed again and again. To walk in the footprints of and carry a cross.   Father Berrigan was a True Christian. And his memory is a blessing not a loss   Daniel Joseph Berrigan, S.J. (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016) Christopher H. Holte 5/1/2016

Sitting on Broken Bones

Here I sit, focusing on my breathing

Sitting on Broken bones,

rotting beneath my feet.

Bones that litter the earth

I fear they cannot bear the weight

Of all these broken dreams; the fear, the hate.

 

Am I lost in the past?

Is the future so gloomy?

Is there room in my heart

for healing and mending?

 

Here I sit, focusing on my breathing

Back straight, broken legs crossed

Is that meditation?

Lost in the present moment,

mindful only that my peace;

is threatened by these broken dreams; consequences, Karma, fate.

 

Is the present really so dire?

Can I rest and be refreshed?

Or is it time to retire,

and join my bones to those in the earth?

 

Here I sit, focusing on my breathing

mindful that my solo actions

Are alone not enough to heal the world!

to knit together the broken bones scattered across the world.

I alone cannot bear the weight

Of all these threatened dreams; the fear, the hate.

And I wonder, have I come too late?

 

I hear the voices of those who have passed.

They clamor and call to me. To us?

"Your dreams are our dreams!

Only you can transform our screams to peace!"

 

But here I sit, focusing on my breathing

Sitting in quiet meditation

knowing that I sit on strong spiritual shoulders

These bones are knitting and they will heal!

The dreams they bear will blossom and the bones anneal and toughen.

Loving dreams are far more powerful than any anger, fear or hate.

These bones will rise! It's never too late!

 

I hear the voices and the bones are rattling.

They rise from the earth and march across the land.

"We have a story to tell!"

"Redeem us! Save us! By doing what you must!"

"Redeem yourselves or we will never heal."

 

Here I sit, focusing on my breathing

Born on the shoulders of our ancestors.

Our families and our predecessors. All our kin!

Our great family whose love can heal the world!

Alone, none of us can bear the weight.

But these bones, together, knit together the world.

 

They say; "The Future is in strong hands!"

"And you are not alone."

Christopher H. Holte, April 27, 2016

"Ezequiel said them dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord!"

No Bread Today!!

No bread today!

Just Matza!

Hurried ancestors left the city,

and camped in the desert to the east.

It is said they baked flat bread in a hurry.

And the Lord told them,

no leavening or they'd die!

So to this day they celebrate their freedom.

They escaped slavery

and ran away from Pharoah's whips.

Chris Holte 4/23/2016

Never let them Beat You down

Never let anyone beat you down!

Whether wearing jeans, a suit or a nightgown!

If they do a driveby let them fly by.

If a group rejects you, shake the dust off your feet!

Seek out people who will listen to you.

And leave the others be.

Don't give up on them completely.

Maybe yet they'll see.

But don't let them beat you down.

It's they who are pathetic, and you're not the clown.

Thinking of both Prince and Maya Angelou

Chris 4/23/2016

Sanders War against the 90s

Hillary faces a Right Wing and Activist/muckraker inspired rewrite of the 1990s that the media calls a "liberal war against the 1990s."

"Hillary Clinton has long literally and figuratively stood beside Bill Clinton, fully embracing his policy moves to make the Democratic Party more centrist in the 1990s and defending him after his affair with a White House intern and subsequent impeachment." [NBC]

The distinction between a critique and destructive criticism is that a critique acknowledges the merits and context of what is being criticized. In this case, broken window theory has a legitimate critique. But we aren't seeing that are we?

Trolling the Left -- Stopping Hillary using the Left

American Crossroads GPS and America Rising devote their pages to providing materials for Social Media to use to bash Hillary Clinton. In addition groups like "Project Veritas" (James O'Keefe) and The American Mirror devote time and effort to creating bogus allegations to convince people that folks are doing dirty Business. And huge sums were invested into trolling the left, baiting the left and "coming at them from the left". They had already spent nearly a million on attacking her by the beginning of 2014. For the right wing it's just "business" as usual. For the left, once they get the scent from Right Wing supplied opposition research, it becomes a cause. Both are getting their funding (unwittingly for Bernie Sanders followers, whose campaign admitted they weren't doing their own Opposition research) from the Right.

This continues the subject of the Stop Hillary Movement that follows on other "attack from the left" designed to spin Democrats into not voting for their own people.

Stabbed with our Own Sword - "Hoisted with our own Petard."

Or how the New Left Movement became the Establishment

The Generation that wouldn't trust anyone over thirty de-evolved into the generation that didn't trust anyone under 30. They (we) invented the "New Left", "Third Way," "New Democrats" and attacked our parents generation of politicians as "establishment", as "out of touch" and in return many of our parents generation turned on us. The New Left abandoned interest in economic progress for working people and focused on gay rights, pacifism and "fighting the establishment."

What happened to the New Left?

The New left fractured over new issues. These issues included:

• The Anti War Movement
• Women's Movement, Gay Rights and Radicalized Civil Rights
• The Values Movement