Time to bring the adults in the Room

I am an unabashed supporter of POTUS. Some of that is principle. Some of that is genuine admiration. Yes, the President is black. Barack Obama is a bit phlegmatic in his presentation. His humor is subtle. Yes he doesn't often directly address issues that I'm passionate about. Yes, he sometimes is on the "wrong side" of other issues I'm passionate about. Yes, the USA has been following bad strategy, tactics and policies on criminal, security and world policy fronts, and he's bought into some of it publicly. That doesn't make him weak, a tyrant, a bad president or mean it makes sense to impeach him or charge him as a war criminal. He's carrying out USA law. He reflects the zeitgeist that elected him. I believe he privately believes much the same as I do, and that shooting him in the back is counter-productive. Especially right now when we have a bully party that is driving all those policies we hate and that would do a coup against him at the first opportunity.

The Zeitgeist has shifted since he was elected. And he's responded to those shifts slowly. We were still in the grip of con conservative ideology in 2008. He'd have been shot by his own people if he hadn't supported the "war on terror" or talked too loudly and critically on the "war on drugs." Our establishment has been fighting the "war on terror" as a strategy for oppression and terror since Reagan used propaganda about the Russians supporting terror to justify his terrorism back in the 80's. I'm re-reading the book "Veil" in the light of material all about it this week. [Finally unpacked it from it's box] and Reagan discounted reports that contradicted his propaganda to make that case, just as the Bush Administration ignored reports that Al Qaeda was about to attack somewhere in the USA. Strategy is a moral game where folks often ignore morals on the grounds of the "ends justify the means." I would be naive to think that Obama doesn't have to consider strategy issues when plotting his own responses. Everything is timing. And Politicians are often in a no-win situation. If they move too early they lose and what they want to do loses. But if they wait too long it loses too.

Community Policing Strategy

But what is going on in Ferguson shows the value of strategy. I've been around the USA government enough so that I can detect the President's hand in what happened Wednesday. The current Governor of Missouri was responsible for intervening in that town when the city government decided to act like a third world country and repress demonstrators. It's obvious the Governor wasn't up to the task. But I think Holder and Obama hit him from behind the scenes, and he did the right thing. They sent in the adults. Not only are right wing policies bad for our economic, moral and social health. They are also obtuse, counter-productive, costly and stupid. The press has made a big deal about "getting things done" and the effectiveness of thugs like Giuliani or Bloomberg, but hard-ass policing (enforcing minor laws against "criminals") is ineffective and winds up labeling ordinary people (who might break the law) as criminals and alienating them. Community policing has demonstrated utility that dates to the invention of modern police forces. Police as occupying armies has been done before. It doesn't work. Going after "bad guys" gets difficult after a while as it is hard to tell bad guys from good guys. And when one is killing people without due process, that radicalizes their brothers and children. The tactics used in Ferguson last week were just an echo of the tactics used against groups like ISIS (by US) or Hamas (by Israel), but the response is as predictable as if it were an exegesis of the process of radicalization. Children will seek revenge for the unfairly killed. So if you want justice you have to distinguish between people who are breaking the law and those you might just be able to recruit to do the right thing.

Obama and the rest of us pushed on Governor Jay Nixon to do the right thing. And he almost literally "sent in the cavalry" and replaced the keystone cops handling Ferguson Demonstrators as an enemy with adults. Captain Johnson is a professional and did what was required, which was the right thing. And that also happens to be respectful, "community policing". Community Policing was invented by Sir Robert Peel in the 1830's:

"The history of modern law enforcement began 166 years ago with the formation of the London Metropolitan Police District in 1829. By creating a new police force, the British Parliament hoped to address the soaring crime rate in and around the nation's capital, attributed at the time to rapid urban growth, unchecked immigration, poverty, alcoholism, radical political groups, poor infrastructure, unsupervised juveniles, and lenient judges. The principles adopted by Sir Robert Peel, the first chief of the London Metropolitan Police, for his new "bobbies" have served as the traditional model for all British and American police forces ever since. These principles include the use of crime rates to determine the effectiveness of the police; the importance of a centrally located, publicly accessible police headquarters; and the value of proper recruitment, selection, and training."[http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cjs07.htm]

We need adults in the room in our other conflicts too. ISIS is really a collection of grown men living out fantasies of restoring the Caliphate style government that once ruled much of the Middle East. They are living a delusional ideal, but they are opposed by folks with no clear strategy, doctrine, or idea of an alternative. Yet there are basic principles that work and are not so harsh or violent, that we the people of this world need to start adopting. Yes, not all doctrines of community policing work in isolation. Yet the principles derive from Sir Robert Peel and community policing aren't just a strategy they are also requirements for a civil society. [Read more: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/commp.pdf] Kudos to Captain Johnson for showing how it's done.

Peace Making requires local democracy and power sharing

The USA constitution has a passage that says:

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

I believe that "guarantee[ing]" states a republican form of government is a requirement that republican forms and democratic attributes be replicated down to the community. The adults are needed in the room. And the way you guarantee that is to ensure that people are engaged in local government as well as national government. And you do that by sharing power and collaboration in the legislative, regulative and requirement arena. If the USA would concentrate on empowering local people with local government. This limits the power of central governments. Central governments should have supervisory, oversight, and system ownership powers. But the members of the system are the local governments and an intelligent application of the principle of subsidiarity requires that they have republican forms of government and a say in the operation of those central systems. When you have that sort of robust local power, then it is harder for dictators to dictate and easier to create commonwealth. Representation reduces conflict and makes it easier to depose bad leaders, while making leaders respond to representatives makes them better leaders. If Israel really wants peace with Gaza it needs to help locals throughout it's area of control govern themselves. Every country needs adults in the room. Including ours, as demonstrated by the mess in Ferguson. The root cause of the problems in Ferguson are local governments with responsibilities but no control over revenues except those from local courts. Looking for revenue sources they take advantage of racism and prejudice. We need to reconstitute our country, and we probably don't even need an amendment.

Further reading:

https://time.com/3117241/ron-johnson/

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/police-captain-walks-ferguson-protesters

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2014/08/14/jay-nixon-finally-clears-up-his-schedule-to-tend-to-the-crisis-in-ferguson-but-only-after-getting-a-bunch-of-crap-about-it

http://online.wsj.com/articles/police-name-darren-wilson-as-officer-in-ferguson-missouri-michael-brown-shooting-1408108371

The Grown men game

I see grown men playing Cowboys and Indians,

with grown man toys, like little boys.

I see them go "bang bang your dead" and put a bullet in the head,

and it makes me weep.

Pushing forward with tunnel visioned hate, tools of the state,

they go to their fate;

Fighting Indians who don't exist, with bullets that insist

on blowing brains out of people's heads

they don't see a human being until he's dead.

 

I am there. I am the Indian.

It is my legs that can't move. My terror that fills my heart.

That big boy toy is pointed at me.

I see the projectile come, come at me free.

I feel the pain. I feel the shame.

I feel the life slipping from me.

 

And I am the boy, playing with a man's toy

who is so caught up in the game I can't see Me.

Bombs seem like fireworks. Shooting like an arcade play.

The bombs rain on innocent women and children,

Intended for bad guys, they are just in the way.

For the shooters, can't let anything get in the way.

 

And in the minds of Cowboys and Indians

there is no good Injin except a dead Injin.

The engine of war has only enemies.

"Kill them anyway, children will grow up to be enemies."

"They aren't children, just miniature Indians."

In games the people playing Indians are having fun.

But for children playing with grown men toys, the dead have none.

 

Oh the parents will tell you;

the "indians" are liars.

"all they want to do is kill."

"or take over the world"

"or take all our land."

... and they'll never understand.

 

But it's a lie

who is a cowboy and who is an Indian

is entirely arbitrary.

One moment the cowboy is on one side.

The next the other side is playing cowboy.

All combatants see themselves as cowboys

And their enemies as dead Indians.

 

And I see someone's brains splattered on the ground!

And I weep for both Cowboys and Indians

playing the grown men game

 

Christopher H. Holte, 8/15/2014

This one is meant to be read loud and didactic!

Children of Amalek -- Introduction

One day when soon after I married my wife I was reading the bible in Hebrew at the synagogue with my wife, and it was the beginning of the Jewish year, when we start out reading Bereshit Genesis chapter 2 Chapter one either starts out with the second letter, or was edited out 4000 years ago. And an alternative version of the story of genesis and then the story of Isaac's near execution occurred to me. I started writing the story, but it started in East Jerusalem just outside the Jews Sacred Gate that leads to the Wailing wall. My vision was of an alternative version of that story and the people who didn't want to see it published. I finished the chapter but there was a lot of detail and characterization missing. Later I got to see that site and it looked very similar to my vision, and indeed an even bigger vision of a sapper war operating behind the over war between Hamas and Likud started opening up. I came home from my trip to Israel and updated the story. Then my wife died and all my personal effects were boxed and I can't find the draft. Especially the part where I told of him translating the alternative text. I felt in a similar to the position of the main character Avi, who'd taken the place of a fellow medical technician and driven the ambulance that morning.... He lives just long enough to send a letter to Israels Antiquities Institution. A letter intercepted by me.

Then yesterday I heard of the atrocities directed against an ancient Kurdish tribe living in Syria. And in the notes about them I heard of the Angels they believe in and their beliefs. And that sparked my imagination once again. Just now I had a vision of another chapter of the story. I was a CIA agent working on a department of the top secret drone program. Only this one is one [I have no idea if this is in fact true -- it's just a dream/vision after all] has the ability to spy on Israeli and other remote control drones and surreptuously watch their deeds. The Drone is shooting at people in the street at a level of resolution that lets me see the people like little cartoons running down the street. The people are running with clay bottles from a building. The bullets are shooting at the people and those clay bottles. One of the bottles contains a text. The text is the version of the bible written by Amalek 4000 years ago. The tribe of Amalek is alive and well, but you would never know it.

My vision is of the real reason that Hamas tunnels under Israel. Not just in Gaza, but in Jerusalem. And there they fight and sometimes join with archeologists and ostensible foreigners, Jihadis and moderates, likud and Labor, English, Germans, Socialists and Frenchmen. Anti-Jews and religious Jews, Descendants of crusaders and descendants of Caliphs alike. All secret descendants of Amalek by birth or secret ceremony. A membership enforced by enforcers so stern that none of us are even allowed to know the first word about them. And they infiltrate both Nazis and Rabbinate, Czars and Communists. For them death and destruction is just "mowing the grass." And the first word of their story is in the second chapter of Genesis that it shares commonality with, "Bereshit"; "With Creation God Created the World."

Sources for future speculative fictional narration:

http://t.co/GcJ1pcbtmu

http://t.co/V3jYeeaJSG

Kali Marching in Palestine

After the angry men played their video games from far away.

After they launched their bombs and took lives away.

After they paused from the adrenaline highs to look at what they wrought

Do the ghosts of the children slain haunt them?

Do they sleep well at night dreaming of the children they killed?

Do wives and grandchildren come to visit to chide them in their sleep?

Do they tell their loved ones, they killed vermin spawn before they could grow up?

Or do they realize they did an evil thing for evil masters?

If they don't have nightmares, I have nightmares enough, myself.

The source for zombie movies, lies in the dread from the visits of the dead, that come to me in my sleep.

They don't speak Arabic or Hebrew, they talk to me in my dreams.

And I try to comfort them in their dying. Because I can hear eternal screams.

They don't suffer as much. Comes one touch of peace, and they smile and go back to keep.

The pain for them is over, in this world's eternal wakeless sleep

It's their families and killers who wake up, sweating in the night.

And the only thing that will put the dead to peace, is when the living put things to right!

Kali is marching, marching in her glee!

Goddess or demoness, four arms, maniacle smile and swords in each hand.

She lives in these so called monotheists, and leads them to their slaughter.

Her face maniacal with joy, at the insanity of stupid humans.

You can't tell me these men are anything, but destined for their doom.

If there is a loving God, he's turning his other eye.

The mood of awful disaster, the sword that smites friend and foe.

Men who visit pain and hatred, are destined to fall below.

One day peace will come. Sweet, and quiet and calm.

That is outside human control, one way or another.

Peace can look like a garden, or it can look like an empty wasteland.

It can involve children smiling, stepping into the light.

Or millions of unburied corpses, rotting in the night.

Christopher H. Holte

Cons -- Can we Pray away the Con?

I've taken to calling a lot of so-called "conservatives" "cons", because so many of these people, at least their politicians, advocates, activists and speakers, are confidence people (con artists) and all of them are huckstering policies and concepts that are inimical to the people in the crowds they work. To be fair "confidence" artistry is as old as trade and almost the definition of politicians. So I wanted to explain the distinctions. But then as I researched I saw that the psychology involved is more than just legitimate advocacy. Cons use fear to permanently change people.

Root of Huckstering - definitions of the terms

Con is short for con artist. Though it is shorthand for "conservative" in the way that modern so-called conservatives behave. Since convincing, building confidence in schemes, and getting folks to follow one is part of being a politician, calling conservative politicians cons is almost an oxymoron. All activists are trying to convince people to do something, but a con artist is trying to convince people to do something that isn't in their own interest, or more accurately is in the "private, separate interest" of the con artist. So conning people, works along with bribery, violence and extortion, to get people to go along with income transfers and policies that hurt them. A con artist gets the oppressed to go along with the oppression. And when in power is getting folks to not recognize tyranny for what it is as con artists usually don't use violence up front.

Conservative con artistry is aimed at something kind of dark.

All Activists use psychology but....

All activists, salesmen, hucksters and politicians use psychology to win recruits and followers. It's the job of the ancient tools of rhetoric and the modern tools of advertising to interest and excite listeners (or readers) to step up and follow a program or buy a product, and activists and politicians do just that. But there is something special about conservative cons that draws from their emphasis on negativity.

Playing on Negative Emotions

Conservatives also build a base by exploiting psychology. Consciously or unconsciously they exploit emotions like anger, fear, and other negative emotions. These seem to be programmed into the brain:

The Cambridge Journal article notes that:

"differing political views are ubiquitous and deep-seated, and they often follow common, recognizable lines. The supporters of tradition and stability, sometimes referred to as conservatives, do battle with the supporters of innovation and reform, sometimes referred to as liberals."

They further note that:

"A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence documents a multitude of ways in which liberals and conservatives differ from each other in purviews of life with little direct connection to politics, from tastes in art to desire for closure and from disgust sensitivity to the tendency to pursue new information."[citation below]

It seems to be built into a psychological dichotomy in us humans that conservatives prefer negative emotions. Ring of fire reports on that study:

“[N]ot only do political positions favoring defense spending, roadblocks to immigration, and harsh treatment of criminals seem naturally to mesh with heightened response to threatening stimuli but those fostering conforming unity (school children reciting the pledge of allegiance), traditional lifestyles (opposition to gay marriage), enforced personal responsibility (opposition to welfare programs and government provided healthcare), longstanding sources of authority (Biblical inerrancy; literal, unchanging interpretations of the Constitution), and clarity and closure (abstinence-only sex education; signed pledges to never raise taxes; aversion to compromise) do, as well. Heightened response to the general category of negative stimuli fits comfortably with a great many of the typical tenets of political conservatism.”

More at: http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/07/scientific-study-shows-conservatives-focus-more-on-the-negative/

Ring of fire further quotes:

“Thus, it is reasonable to hypothesize that individuals who are physiologically and psychologically responsive to negative stimuli will tend to endorse public policies that minimize tangible threats by giving prominence to past, traditional solutions, by limiting human discretion (or endorsing institutions, such as the free market, that do not require generosity, discretion, and altruism), by being protective, by promoting ingroups relative to out-groups, and by embracing strong, unifying policies and authority figures.”

Producing conservatives through propaganda.

It's my belief that this conditioning starts with children, as I want to think it's mostly choice (and not merely wiring) whether a person is primed for negative reactions or positive ones, it is disturbing to read data that shows it is conditioning. And yes while Liberals are often negatively motivated by reaction to what conservatives are doing so neither is exclusively the province of just one orientation. Still fear-mongerers and those affected by it, do or advocate violence and harm to others. They don't just seem cruder and more insensitive, the measures show they really are.

Some folks may be born as cons... or created.

BF Skinner and Conditioning

These findings confirm almost a century of disturbing science and pyschology. I remember how in his book Walden II BF Skinner described a behaviorally conditioned Utopia (which actually was extremely frightening when you read it critically) and he also wrote "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" where he is quoted:

"What do we mean when we say we want to be free? Usually we mean we don’t want to be in a society that punishes us for doing what we want to do. Okay -- aversive stimuli don’t work well anyway, so out with them! Instead, we’ll only use reinforcers to “control” society. And if we pick the right reinforcers, we will feel free, because we will be doing what we feel we want!"

He was more right than I thought. And the right has intentionally been using that knowledge.

That is what demagogues, preachers, activists and politicians have been doing for centuries. Unfortunately fear and loathing motivate people negatively. In his books he showed that aversive reinforcers actually make society more violent and nasty. Behavioral therapy is out of style largely because it "works" but not in a way that benefits society.

The dynamic of operant conditioning is regressive and con leaders have known for years that they can condition people into conservative (negative) reactions through repeated stimulus and fear-mongering. There is a method to the madness, and while one might not be able to pray away the con once it is wired in, prayers, preachings, childhood stories, and repeated lies can instill fear -- and that changes the dynamic of the brain itself.

And there are plenty of studies that indicate that that is the case. Unlike being Gay, one can be turned into a conservative (brainwise) through fearful and traumatic experiences in childhood. This is not only true in humans, it is also true in animals.

Childhood Trauma induces brain changes

“Animals placed in traumatic, fear-inducing situations around the time of puberty show high and sustained levels of aggression later in life. And while rats cannot substitute for humans, the scared rats also showed changes in hormone levels, brain activity, and genetic expression that appear very similar to traits observed among troubled and unusually violent people.”

So there is method in the Right Wings Madness. They scare people, and aim to scare them, starting during puberty, with the goal of permanently changing their brains and making them conservatives. Trauma (fear and violence) even makes them less intelligent. Those exposed to fear and stress were:

"found to have deficits in verbal declarative memory function based on neuropsychological testing. Studies, using a variety of measures (including the Wechsler Memory Scale, the visual and verbal components of the Selective Reminding Test, the Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Paired Associate Recall, the California Verbal New Learning Test, and the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test), found specific deficits in verbal declarative memory function"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/

I like to hope that traumatized people can be converted back to a more optimistic normal, but I know they are conditioned into it. That the effects are bio-chemical. So I'm no longer that optimistic. Just as it may not be able to "pray away the gay", it's may not be possible to pray away the con, but the job of the con artist, activist and politician to try.

I had a different article in mind when I started writing. But this is enough for this post. It's depressing and a bit traumatic to read that the very things that scare conservatives make them act the same way. The right of course will put out the tu quo que argument that the left does it too. Well fearmongering is never right. The only thing preventing us sometimes from solving problems is our negative reaction to negativity.

Can we pray away the Con? Pray away the fear? Man I hope so.

Links and Sources:

Ring of Fire Radio

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/07/scientific-study-shows-conservatives-focus-more-on-the-negative/

Cambridge Journal link:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=9292101&jid=BBS&volumeId=37&issueId=03&aid=9292100&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0140525X13001192

Ring of Fire:

http://ringoffireradio.com/2014/07/scientific-study-shows-conservatives-focus-more-on-the-negative/

BF Skinner sources:

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/Skinner.html

Beyond Freedom and Dignity:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55987.Beyond_Freedom_and_Dignity

Walden II

Quotes from Skinner:

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1164564-walden-two

Childhood trauma articles:

http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/16/childhood-trauma-leaves-legacy-of-brain-changes/

An Ideology of Privateering

Essential Principles of Legalized Piracy

1. Economic Royalism – Everything should be privately owned that can generate economic value. Anything can be owned. A pirate society is an "ownership society."
2. Piracy – is only bad when illegal, so modern pirates work with legislators to make it all legal.
3. Legal instruments – like letters of Marquee, Corporate Charters, legislation are more effective than Cannons and cutlasses.
4. Privatization – Privatized warfare (Freebooting), Government functions, are preferable to public interest.
5. Worship of Contracts – If it is legal then it is moral, even if it is murder, mayhem, theft and graft. The Contracts of pirates trump laws, basic rights, promises.
6. Wealth = Virtue. The Pirates redefined Capital to include all wealth including derivative financial wealth.
7. The ideology of Privateering uses other labels, such as capitalism, socialism, "revolution" or "libertarianism", but the underlying ideology is "anything goes."

Introduction

Arr me mates! When we think of pirates we usually think of Johnny Depp playing the role of Jack Sparrow. But piracy has a history that goes way back into antiquity. For example, the reality behind "Homer" was Greek pirates versus Trojan pirates. In most of history merchant ships weren't that much different from warships. They were armed. If they saw a ship that looked stronger than them, they fled. If they were hungry and on the hunt, they pursued. In times where rule of law isn't strong enough the law of the jungle applies and each ship, merchant or warship, is a little kingdom. Thus theft, business and warfare have always been connected.

The ideology of nobility and feudalism was based on the notion that if you could steal property and defend those thefts, it was your property. And all you needed to do was to bow to those with more power and property than you had. It was an ideology of piracy. Refined and semi-legalized, we have an ideology of privateering that corrupts capitalism and socialism alike, and makes people.“hunters of men” Our Mafia is legal, descended from the “brotherhood of the coast” and has an esoteric ideology that treats other expressed beliefs as cons.

That ideology has been passed on down to today.

Formally put:

The ideology of privateering, believed by sea dogs and their successors alike, worldwide, is the notion that everything should be privately owned and governed. And that anything that can be carved up and turned into property, should be. They further believe that any such loot or property so acquired, even through force and occupation, even if later adjudicated as having been illegally obtained, as long as the theft was licensed by the regime of the time, is the property of the thief.

Original Privateers

Original Privateers sought a "letter of Marquee" that enabled them to wage private warfare and theft against enemies of the State they lived in. Modern pirates use contracts, corporations, courts and legislators to get licenses, mortgages or liens, or simply seize and convert property to their own. Privateering business is ruthless capitalism and ruthless private government. And legalized kleptocracy, venality and transactionalism.

Anything Goes “capitalism”

The ideology of privateering says that “as long as it is legal” anything goes! A pirate is only "illegal" if he doesn't have some permit from government for his piracy. If one has a title, letter of marquee, or corporate charter, as long as it isn't deemed illegal by a court, it is perfectly justified.

Under this ideology property taken, including via warfare, property, human beings or vital public services. In the ideology of privateering, looting is the point, not a simple benefit. Privateers often see themselves as warriors, for God, for Country or simply for loot. For the privateer, laws are written to justify looting. Rule by the strongest is assumed, and those who lose a battle or get conned, don't deserve any share in the loot acquired.

The logic of privateering includes:

1. Privatization: Private Government of property, people, government functions and enterprise.
2. Profiteering: in former and present times, that usually means anything goes rent seeking,...
3. Piracy: deception, theft, as long as the things stolen are from “enemies” or “losers.”
4. Enslaving enemies and victims, buying and selling anything for a buck, including people.
5. Smuggling, predatory extraction, wildcat exploration, land and resource theft.
6. Private warfare, filibustering.
7. Colonialization, neo-colonialization, subversion and overthrow.
8. Corruption, Use of corruption, courts, legislators and executives to acquire & legalize usurpation of resources.
9. Monopolization: Seeking monopolies, patents and titles from the government to freeze out competition or enforce rent privileges.

And on the contrary, if a person is deemed by law, no matter how corrupt, to no longer own a thing, their use of it is piracy.

A Vision of Angels waging Peace

I have a vision of Angels waging Peace,
flying high above the hate and fighting of hate and fear
Blowing the mighty Shofar from high above, heard with a mighty cheer!
Sending out a blast of Justice, mercy, forgiveness and love
instead of attacking heedlessly the insane humans below.
They blow a horn that opens doors, and walls fall.

Yes, my vision is of a mighty army, so powerful and confident,
It needs no guns, missiles or bombs to attack.
Instead the angels come in in a line to circle and dance!
and blow the horn of second chances!
Angels Bringing bread and honey, food, clothing and money.
filling up carts and vendor stands with overflowing goods
Instead of bulldozing houses, building up new roads!
And paying people to pursue the ways of peace, instead of war!

In my vision, trains run from Turkey to Medina and Mosul, Baghdad an Kabul, and other paths.
And the roads are filled with tourists and lovers, fearing only tourist traps.
Let everyone travel when and where willing! Let them live their lives in freedom, coming and going!
And let folks live in any town where they can make a living.
and be citizens of where they hang their coats.
Let us take away the power from the demagogues and profiteers.
And the liars who wear religious clothes.
And still we'll hear the bells and calls to prayer, all the louder.
Because those called go freely.

Christopher H. Holte