Month: September 2018

Please excuse my emotional oscillations.  Sometimes a cheerleader, sometimes Debbie Downer.  I believe all of us can have Hope and hopelessness at the same time.  We can carry idealism and reality in the same bucket.  Happy and sad, weak and strong, philosophical and Pollyanna at the same time.  We are all very complex beings, our world, full of grey areas.  We can doubt yet still be resolved.  Allow this in all of us.  I think, in my case, Hope still wins out overall.

One of my greatest sources of Hope has been my view of the “big picture” from mankind’s history.  Much of it has been three steps forward and two steps back.  But I can truly see, through the thousands of years, that after the math, that one extra step forward has added up to thousands of steps forward now.  Our progress, very real.

Throughout the centuries, the horrors of daily life for much of mankind, has been lessening, despite the 24-7 news casting of all the terrible things still happening today.  The term “Human Rights” now, at least, exists.  The conquerors and the pillagers are not as free as they used to be.  Disease and famine, not nearly as wide-spread.  Overall, human moving closer to Humanities.  This very view from history, always there in my mind, gives me Hope.

Now, if I may oscillate.  History mostly gives me Hope.  I’ve also seen that three steps forward and two steps back is an average.  It’s not always three steps forward.  Not always, only two steps back.  As our abilities to preserve life has increased, so has our ability to destroy life.  In the last short one hundred years, with mankind’s most recent advances, hundreds of millions of lives have been saved.  This, many steps forward for mankind.  But these steps are nullified by our ability to destroy by the hundreds of millions.  How many steps back?  And now, can we save by the billions?  I know we can destroy by the billions.  The race is still on.  Debbie Downer is still here.

Just one more oscillation, I promise this time.  I know our Founding Principle is the key to winning this race, this Human Race.  And our Individual action is one important goal at the heart of this Principle.

Mankind’s history shows us the progress we’ve made.  But we can get complacent, we can begin to believe progress is a natural action.  Like water runs downhill.  That it just happens that way.  That change happens with or without us.  Progress has happened for thousands of years.  We weren’t there, it still happened.  This view, unfortunately blurs the people it took for this progress to even occur.  The actual truth is progress runs uphill.  Progress is not alive.  It doesn’t move on its own.  Progress is not a natural action.  Progress is powered only by individual people.  Powered by a real persons legs or pen or voice.  Powered by that non-descript person in the crowd, under that pink hat.  We need to see that person clearly, not just a blur.  It takes that one person to push this progress up that hill.  We need to focus on and to truly see that person clearly.  That person in the middle of the crowd on that bridge in Alabama, that person 201,562 in that Million-Man March.  Look closely, it took them to make progress happen.  It didn’t happen by itself.  We must realize that we are the breath of progress.  It took every single, clear, distinct individual to add up to one million.  It didn’t just happen by itself.  It took real people.   We can think someone else, just this blur, will take care of it.  Look closely at that blur.  See clearly that person.  See their eyes.  They look like mine, they look like yours.  That’s who it takes for progress to happen.  It takes me.  It takes you.  Not someone else, not just some blur.

You and I are that person under that pink hat, on that bridge or number 201,562 of a million.  You and I are the pens and the voices of progress. “We, the People” are not just some blur.  Progress truly may not happen without us.  A blur will not take care of it for us.  My legs, hands and mind, your legs, your hands or your mind, is what progress must have to take those steps forward, those steps uphill.  It may not happen without me.  It may not happen without you.

You truly need to know there is a never-ending satisfaction which no one can take from you when you go to a protest, or write a politician or media outlet, or discuss with friends, family, or co-workers.  We need to experience that irreversible patriotic pride.   We need to know that silence is worse than how badly I write.  Our effort, never wasted, no matter how much ignored or poo-pooed.

I know it’s tough to be reasonable, to try to see all sides, to see how complicated and grey most issues really are.  But in this world of oscillations, surrounded by the turmoil of “I don’t know”, I have found one Peace.  You’ll see one constant amidst all my oscillations.  A true tangible.  We can touch it, we can all see it.  A discussion I can never lose.  No Republican can say I’m wrong.  No anarchist can disagree.  No Muslim, no Christian, no gun enthusiast or pacifist can say I’m wrong.  I would win this case against the best lawyers in the world.  It’s absolutely undeniable “…all men are created equal…” is America’s one Founding Principle.  Like it or not, wish to follow it or not, believe it irrelevant or not.  What you do with it, up to you.  But the absolute, black and white, irrefutable fact is that it’s there.  No one can deny it.  There is not two sides to this.  This is the first statement in our first document.  Its importance in the birth of this New World set in stone.  The very goal of America herself.  Only one statement can be first and this is that one.   America’s one Founding Principle, period.

Right there is solid bedrock.  No question mark.  No self-doubt.  No grey area at all.

Please, I invite you to also find this Peace, a Peace without any oscillations.

 

 

All of these sentences, throughout this whole blog, I’m not sure where they go.  Priorities in question.  What’s next, should this go there?  My gosh, there’s so much, which part, more important?  Confusion sets in, my head’s in a whirl, somewhat in a fog.

Then a Peace came upon me.  A real Peace I’d rarely known.  A Peace of absolute.  One answer that I know.  There’s no doubt in my mind, which sentence comes first.  The first sentence as clear, as clear as a bell.  I absolutely knew which sentence comes first.  After that, yeah, it’s all kinda vague, not sure of the sequence, the path obscure.  With implications so vast, even dreams can’t catch up.

But I knew one sentence was perfectly placed.  I knew one sentence, this sentence is first.  The Peace that came when I knew what was first, is the Peace I hope for us all.

Most all of our issues addressed with one sentence.  Now you know this is madness, you’ve gone over the brink.  This has nothing to do with this crisis right now or that topic today.  Get your head out the clouds.  It’s more complicated than that.  We live in the real world, more pressing things on our plate.  Our feet firmly planted, not floating around.

This sentence you speak of, we all know it’s there.  Written long ago, by men who owned slaves.  A sentence only meant to free those men from a king.  We have all moved on.  We treat all as equal, give the janitor a nod.  All people, I care.  It’s a given, part of us.  It’s natural now, a reflex.  No thought to be given.  We know that it’s there.  Goal accomplished, move on.  I’ve got important things to do.  Got real issues to deal with.  Your meadows and unicorns can wait till tomorrow.  I’m sure this can wait, its relevance is vague.  Its place in this instance, most certainly obscure.  I really don’t see it.  Its importance as all.

We have terrorist to deal with.  They hate us you know.  They’ll stop at nothing to kill us, wipe us right off the map.  They see us as evil.  Just money grubbers, invaders.  They see as our strength, mostly paper and steel.  Don’t see how this Principle helps here at all.  This is right here and right now.  We can’t wait till “tomorrow”.  We don’t need distractions, no fables to follow.  Come down from the clouds.  Nothing there much to see.

But wait!  What I saw!  I saw such a sight!  No one will believe that I’ve seen what I saw.

I saw Peace.  I saw Justice.  I saw Hope for us all.  I saw Love.  I wondered if what I saw could be God.  Saying, “This, the way to me.”

Now they will know I’ve gone mad, this sight so absurd.  I can’t say this, can’t tell folks.  Why?  Hmm, I’m not sure.  Just know that you can’t.  To say, “…created equal…” with “unalienable Rights” is the answer to all?  To claim “Founding Principle”, some miraculous sentence, our Founding Fathers, more wise than thought, is just too crazy, too way off the charts.  Just say the words out loud, people look at you funny.  “OK Pollyanna”, then shake their head with that grin.  They’ll say I just don’t get it.  There’s oh, so much more.  Grow up and move on or the town fool you’ll become.  Then my logic, unheard.  That sight I saw, goes unlearned.

But what should I do?  This sight must be told.  I heard us speak the first statement.  The beginning of “us”.  I saw how important, how important it was.  I must say it out loud.  So the words reach an ear.  This, what I saw with my head in the clouds.  I heard the words spoken for people to hear.  I saw kids recite it, hands over hearts to our flag.  I saw people discussing our Cause in the open.  This is us.  Question answered.  What we do with it yet to come. They could see it wasn’t perfect.  See the going gets tough.  But we didn’t give up.  We just kept going.  The storm wasn’t the better of us.

I saw us come together, with our common bond spoken.  We remembered where we came from.  We knew who we are, with purpose renewed.  Our Cause to live on, with these words on our tongue.

I saw old folks there, as stubborn as rock, think this first sentence, more important than thought.  “It is the first sentence, the beginning of ‘us’, maybe it’s something, something more than we thought.”

I saw police and soldiers carry on, with this principle thought first, knowing full well, of the abuse used against us, the dangers that it poses.  Now trusted, justly honored, and looked up to once more.  An example of what law is supposed to be.  When this Principle comes first.

I saw workers across the land with the chance to show their worth.  Now unshackled, no longer about who they know.  Forever now free from how they look or where they’re from.  I saw kids in the ghetto, speak with Hope for things to come.  Life now, could be worth it.  A real chance to turn out right.  For life to turn fun.

I saw the rich feel more obliged, advantages recognized, realizing luck should play a lesser role.  Empathy, now is the given.  But for grace, they say, go I.  With this sentence foremost, the first thing to cross our mind.

I saw the terrorist training camp, they found it harder to hate, the people from the country where all are created equal.  All with unalienable Rights.  For this is what they’ll see when we put this Principle first.  When we say it, when we think it, when we know that it is “us”.

I saw the other countries when they see how strong we are.  They want to try to be like us, their people don’t have to run.  The example that we set wins them, with this Principle thought first.  This Cause we are resolved to, we never throw it out.  Our friends know to trust us, our word much better than gold, with this Principle set in stone.  Everyone knew our country stood for this, when the first sentence comes first in us.

I can’t hold this.  I’ve got to say it.  I must say it out loud.  I know you think it’s crazy.  I know you’ll think I’m mad.  But I saw Peace.  I saw Justice. I saw Hope. I saw Love.  It might have been what God looks like.  I saw it with my head in the clouds.  I saw the one sentence that comes first.  I saw its true importance, when I heard the sentence that was first.  In the beginning of “us” all.

It’s a Peace I’ve rarely known.  What we’re missing here on Earth.

It all started with speaking the words out loud.  And knowing it is “us”.

This pen cannot write, so you can really see, the tears in this old man’s eyes.  Too sad for mere ink, too deep for mere paper.  This pen, not as strong as we need.

From this page that I write, I can’t fire a flare.  This pen, not that mighty.  No fireworks from here.

This needs to shake a whole country.  But how with just words?  My writings, not strong.  This pen, not enough.  The steel of the sword, too powerful to fight.

I look at this pen, the tears come once more.  What more can I do?  This is all that I have.  No real talents, no money, no influence or power.  This pen cannot trumpet what the world needs to hear.  This pen made of plastic, its only sound, a click and a scratch.  This pen, no match for the forces we face.

But I must tell the world.  I have found the Key.  A Key so lost, we didn’t even know it was gone.  Can just this flat paper show us the way?  It needs brass bands and spotlights, loudspeakers and beacons.  Can this pen make you follow this rainbow right here?  To find the Key that I’ve found?  This Key that’s been lost.  It’s been in plain sight.  This Key called a “given”.  Of course it’s still there, any thought, not required.  Don’t need to look closely, don’t need one last look.

Wait!!  Stop!!  They’re leaving!!  They still do not see it!  We need “BOOM”, we need “POP”!!  We need “sizzle” right now!!

Blast this pen!  What good are you, huh?  No country shaking, no fireworks, not even a tear.  The pen that I hold cannot wake us to see, this Key we need, so desperately.

The Key still lies orphaned, out there in the field.  Alone and unnoticed.  No throngs to extol it.

All I have, not enough, to bring it to bear.  That steel must be hard, as hard as I’d feared.

I’m sorry if this pen, not as strong as it needs.  I’m sorry if this pen, not as mighty as hoped.

We need to feel that wet tear.  See that rocket’s red glare.  Something must shake us, to find this Key that is there.

I hope the pen, stronger, that it’s mightier than steel.

 

Excuse me sir, I wonder if you could help me?  I guess I’m not from around here.  My destination’s not on this map.  Everyone I’ve spoken to, they just shrug their shoulders.  They’ve heard of it, just don’t know where to find it.  Like Atlantis or Shangri-La, it seems to be almost mythical.  But I’m positive I wasn’t just dreaming.  I could have sworn that it was real.

I’m pretty sure someone wrote it down somewhere.  Something about the foundation or cornerstone of something.  Something, somewhere important.

I’m sorry.  I know you’re busy.  I don’t wish to interrupt.  I can see you’ve got important things to get to.  I’ll ask someone else, or just keep looking.  I’ve heard there’s a shining beacon.

I’ve asked friends and family.  I’ve ask news outlets.  I’ve ask respected Congress members.  I’m answered with silence most of the time.  Skepticism, when there is a response.  Oh yeah, three people with words of encouragement.  That might only mean there’s four people delusional, or they Love me and don’t want to hurt my feelings.

Maybe this place doesn’t exist at all.  Maybe I just imagined it.  But I’m not that creative, not all that smart.  I could not have come up with this on my own.  It must have been something I read before.  Something someone planted in my head.  Some sort of propaganda tool, whispered to me when I was vulnerable.  Maybe hidden in the creamy part of an Oreo.

Maybe I better just sit down.  I’ve always heard if everyone tells you you’re drunk, then maybe you better sit down.  Does that work if the whole bar is loaded?  What happens when insane is normal?  And normal tells you to sit?

I really do thank you for your time.  I’ll just keep on looking.  I have a copy on my wall back home.  My phone says to check the first thing inside, The National Archive in Washington, D.C., in the United States of America.  It says we can find this destination there.  Maybe it wasn’t just a dream.

This War on Terror.  How does it end?  Does anybody know?  Where does it stop?  When will we see the headlines, “War Over!  Terrorists Surrender!”?  Have we noticed that there is no land to occupy, no flag to take, no dictator to eliminate to end this war?  Do we realize we have given one person the power to cross any border, to fire missiles or bombs, even send in special forces, American boots, into any country that person deems a threat.  With no need to go through Congress each time any more.  Congress didn’t declare war on Pakistan, no Congressional declaration needed against Yemen, against Libya, against Syria.  Are we at war with them?  Does anybody know?  Did I miss a “day of infamy” speech or two?  We the people have appointed the United States as the world’s judge, jury, and executioner.  Is this what “might makes right” looks like?  Is this our global “manifest destiny”?

Isn’t that what King George III believed?  Only one has the wisdom to decide?  No international forum.  No coalition needed.  That one person can hold so much power?

We have ceded all that power to the hands of one person, until the terrorists are gone.  Until the War on Terror is over.  Have we tried to imagine what that looks like?  How and when can we say we’ve beaten the terrorists?  When will there be no terrorists and we can get back to normal, where only Congress has the power to declare war?

I’ll tell you when, never.  Because we have declared war on an intangible, on a concept, on a cause.  So there will always be targets to strike.  They have terrorists in Yemen, in Syria, Pakistan and Libya.  They have terrorists in Indonesia, in Egypt and Turkey.  There’s terrorists in France, Norway and Mexico.

This is an endless war.  This is a border-less war.  Our President now with permanent war powers, with arbitrary targets and objectives.  What does the Syrian Air Force have to do with the threat of terrorism here?  What qualifies someone as a terrorist anyway?  Targeting civilians, certainly.  But with our might, the numbers of “collateral damage” are higher by far.  We don’t mean to, we even sacrifice our lives to avoid it, but two thousand pound bombs don’t care and munitions don’t always go where they’re supposed to.  And when we launch so many, the numbers really add up.  “Intent” becomes irrelevant if we “accidentally kill” twenty thousand along the way.  The word “terror” itself is arbitrary, intangible.  How do you go to war against it?  Most importantly, how does it end?

We know war evolves.  Actually, much quicker than mankind.  And we have to adapt to changing conditions, of that there is no doubt.  This is a new type of enemy, elusive, rarely visible, and yes, very dangerous.  They indeed would use weapons of mass destruction if acquired.  But we need perspective.  This enemy will never overrun our borders, they can never enslave our people.  This is an enemy that can never “win”.  We ourselves kill more Americans with cars and guns in a month than they have in twenty years.  We spend more of our national treasure, lose more of our national esteem, give up more of our Constitution against this enemy than they ever merit.  Maybe this is how they destroy America.  This, how they take away our Independence and our Freedom.  They allow us to display our arrogance to the world.  They allow us to show our unbridled self-righteousness, allow us to show that we think we are the world rulers.  They let us show the world our disregard for international law, with no respect for the Geneva Convention, no regard for sovereign countries, no regard for our own base Constitution, our own laws.  That we can indeed, just make them up along the way.  That we will abandon our very Founding Principle if we are frightened, thus, abandon you in the trenches.  They can show the world the referee is corrupt and not to be trusted.  The game truly rigged.  The Imams can say, “See, I told you.  They think they’re God.  They believe they are the ultimate power, the world’s judge, jury and executioner.”

This, the very thing our country was created to fight.  The irony, blatant.  The destination more frightening than the journey.  Where does this end?  What is our goal?  When does the sailor get to kiss the girl?  When does the ticker-tape parade begin?  Can we achieve this peace from the end of a gun barrel or the tip of a cruise missile?  How many do we have to kill to prove our righteousness this time?

War has evolved.  Mankind, not so much.  Fear, our baseline once again.  Foundational Rights, our “collateral damage”.  This war with no end.  This intangible enemy we try to fight with hardware and steel.  War has evolved.  Stone lost against better stones, horsemen lost against better horsemanship, tanks fought tanks, jungle fighting fought jungle fighting.  Oil rig firefighters know, you can only defeat big fires with a stronger fire.  Likewise, you can only fight intangibles with stronger intangibles.  War has evolved.  So must we.  This intangible, border-less enemy can only be defeated by our bigger intangible, our stronger cause, and here on Earth, you can’t get any bigger than “all”, “created equal” and our holding to this as “unalienable”.  This enemy can only be defeated by our ideals, by the steadfast adherence to principle.  By the bravery, the sacrifice, the moral high ground held resolutely.  This enemy can only be defeated by our evolved “shot heard ‘round the world”.  This, the only way to win this war.  This, the only way to end this endless war.

Our Founding Fathers gave us this cause, this ultimate intangible weapon, to fight these terrorists, to win against the enemies of peace.  This cause, much stronger than nuts and bolts.  This American strength on a much bigger scale than mere elemental or chemical reactions.

This, in our modern age, with our evolution of war, is the only way to occupy land, is the only way to take a flag, the only way to eliminate a dictator.  This, the only way to fight this war.  The only way we will ever end this war.

Try to imagine what it was like. July 4, 1776. You’re a patriot standing on the streets of Boston or Philadelphia. Maybe Stillwater, N.Y. or a farm outside of town. You hear the news. America has declared our Independence. We have declared to the world we are no longer kingsmen. Imagine those patriots as they thought, now, I am a free man. Can we possibly imagine, standing there at that moment, how that first breath of Freedom filling our lungs must have felt. That breath you breathe right now. The same one taken by each and every patriot on that day for the first time in history. A breath they had never known. A breath they had never tasted. When I try to imagine it – it overwhelms me. That first breath. What was that very first taste of Freedom like? Can you imagine? A taste that reaches your soul?

Try to imagine how it might have felt to look with your new eyes, the streets, the buildings, the fields, seeing all around you, a whole new beginning. The endless opportunity. The Hope. The chance to prove your own character. To be able to see the very birth of Individual Freedom. Right before your eyes. Imagine how that must have looked, through our patriot’s eyes. I wonder if we can see it.

Imagine, those first strong steps these patriots took – the pride they must have felt. The feeling of I am born equal. My voice – as important as yours. It would puff your chest, it would strengthen your handshake, you now look a person straight in the eye. Everything is different. A rebirth for all. I wonder if we can imagine that feeling in America on July 4, 1776.

I wonder if we can imagine – what declaring this for all people would feel like?

I know we can imagine their first taste of Freedom, that first sight of Hope, the pride of those first strong steps. For them, as it was for our patriots. Imagine.

I can’t imagine what it would look like through the eyes of that young lady on July 4^th, 1776. She was there at our country’s celebration with the birth of this new nation. I wonder, could she see all the joy and the back-slapping, the spring in their step and the smiles on the faces? What could that have looked like to her – that look of Hope? Could she see it right there, what Freedom looked like? I still can’t imagine what she could see, through her eyes.

She heard the church bells ringing, heard the toasts of congratulations, the laughter, the song and the revelry. New sounds, different sounds, the sounds of Freedom. I can’t know how that would sound, to her young ears.

Did she smile seeing what Freedom looked like? A freedom she could see with her own eyes and hear with her own ears. She could have witnessed that pure joy. She could have reached out and touched Freedom.

I just can’t imagine what she could see, through those beautiful, soulful eyes, as she carefully, once again, drew the bath for her master.

I can imagine, I do know, no one can see through tears.

 

I’m a thirteen year old boy in Mosul, Iraq. ISIS fighters in my house, using my family as cover from coalition forces. If I survive, a lifetime of choices in my future. My eyes wide open, my brain in high gear.

Our coalition struck, the fighters, now gone. My Mother, baby sister, big brother as well. I saw it all. Bullets flying, this close to my head. Explosions, walls crumbling, my whole world shaking beneath my feet. The chaos, the shouting, the cursing, the silence. Then the screams of pain realized, poised to haunt me forever.

“As cover” meant nothing. Both sides do I hate. The only epiphany I have, both sides do I hate.

I’m that same young boy, in that very same moment. My family held hostage. My future, my eyes, my mind, just as open. The attack never comes. ISIS indeed was right. My Mom is still here, baby sister still smiles. I saw it all, no bullets, no explosions. Our walls still intact. No screams do I hear to haunt me till death. My world clearer now, my feet still on Earth.

The epiphany I have, “As cover” meant something. The good, I see true.

“As cover” meant something. My family, my life. Whose forces held us dear, above their own life?

My future still open, eyes still just as wide. My choices, still there for me to decide. To whom do I run? For whom should I care?

I know now, “As cover” means something. And that will always be there.

I don’t really like to write this blog.  I don’t like putting myself out there.  I know I’m not very good.  I’m trying to convey the most beautiful song in the world and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.  But I’ve discovered the cure to what ails us and I’m resolved to getting it out any way I can think of.  My brother says my blog is mostly preaching to the choir.  The people it needs to reach, not even seeing it.

That’s why I enjoy driving my truck around.  I enjoy parking my truck.  I enjoy sitting at stop lights.  I have a camper shell on my truck with three exposed windows.  And on these windows, I have, as large as I could get written –

All are Created Equal (over-arching and in beautiful cursive)

America’s Founding Principle. (Bold and underlined)

Please think about it. (The main gist)

(With a suggestion) You can visit foundingprinciple.org

So now I know, whether driving or parked, more than the choir is seeing it.  Every person who reads the back or the side of my truck, hears that bell ring.  Every person in the car behind me, the people who are beside me.  The folks passing my truck on the parking lot.  They see it, whether they want to or not.  And you can’t unsee something.  You can’t unring that bell.

Probably many don’t like it, for so many reasons, but no matter what, the bell still rings and reminds us of the fact that it is America’s Founding Principle.  I don’t look at faces.  Don’t look for reactions.  I’m only here to ring the bell.  You can think about it as you wish.  But I’ve accomplished my first goal.  People can’t help but at least think about it.  Can’t help but put these two together.  Even if it ticks you off.  The bell has been rung.

All are created equal is America’s Founding Principle.  Everyone knows it’s true.  They might think about that the next time they wave our flag.  Might think about it the next time they vote.  It might cross their mind in daily life.  Every person that hears that bell ring, cannot erase it, cannot delete it, they cannot just make it go away.

I can ring this Liberty Bell.  The words etched in stone.  Simply written on the sides of my truck.  I can sing this song.  The words already waiting.  The notes, left to the imagination.  I can’t afford billboards or brass bands or sky-writing, but I know I ring that bell every time someone reads my truck.  And it’s all Americans, not just the choir.

I realize the danger, to so much more than my glass.  I’m putting everyone I love at risk.  But there’s a sense of security I can’t really explain.

It feels like my Country has my back.

 

Warning:  This letter has the ability to insult most people on the planet.  It can seem anti-religion, anti-race, anti-country or creed, anti-sewing circle and anti-family.  Anti-any of the groups we belong to.  I can assure you, it is not.  It is only anti-divided, anti-separate, anti-apart.  It is meant to promote the idea that yes, enjoy family and those unique ties, enjoy church and the shared love.  Religions around the world know Love is God.  That Love is world-wide. You should love outings with “the guys” or “gals”.  I myself, love being with folks with whom I share similarities with.  We speak the same language, share like experiences, can agree on so many things.  It feels comfortable and natural, an important part of my life.  A good part of my life.  We need this as humans.  It is perfectly fine to do this.

Most of us have been a part of a team.  We know the comradery, we know the pride of teamwork in achieving a goal.  These, all good things we should never lose.  Competition, a healthy part of life.  But competition minus respect is something different.  Demonizing the opponent, too helpful, too easy.  It can relinquish responsibility for our own actions by blaming someone else.  “It’s all the terrorist fault, we have nothing to do with it.”  See how easy that is to say?  How easy that is to feel?  Replace “terrorists” with Whites or Blacks or Republicans or Democrats.  This, the slippery slope we rarely hear of.

We need to love new ideas just as much as our Small Town, USA.  We need to love opening ourselves up to different concepts just as much as being with our friends at church.  Trying things outside of our box.  Enjoy people’s differences as much as you do our similarities.  You’ll find differences with similar people and many things similar with folks who are different.  This, the gist of our Founding Principle.  Comforting and exciting all around, often at the same time.

This letter, meant to shock, not offend.  But we need to face up to our pre-existing condition called Tribalism.  Our most divisive trait.  Realize it has and does serve us well.  But mostly, we must realize the danger it poses. Divided we fall means all of us.  Mankind itself.

 

 

The United States, the world, has a pre-existing condition.  The fatality rate, 100%.  The pain from this disease, immeasurable.  The magnitude, barely fathomable.  The appetite of this affliction, as infinite as universal life.  Mankind, doomed without the cure.

Sorry folks, Trump is not the problem, only a symptom of this malady.  To alleviate this symptom will not be the cure.  Nor will aspirin or heroin, beer or champagne, money or power, laser-guided bombs or laser-precision surgery.  The distance you can travel or the measurements of your fence will never be the cure.

For this pre-existing condition, borne by us all, is truly diabolical.  This disease makes you feel good.  It camouflages itself as a gift, as something that has and always will protect you from harm.  This disease will give you friends, folks you can relate to, with things to talk about, to laugh about, things to get mad about with.  It will give you people you feel you can trust.  The assurance that you are not alone.  It tells you that you’re the smart ones.  That you “get it”.  That others are the problem.  If you can just get away from them or eliminate them somehow, life would be much easier, much simpler to manage.  Peace and happiness will surely follow.  It whispers to us that difficult, self-reflection, soul searching, now unnecessary.  It can prove to us how good we are with peer respect and show us how terrible others are with snapshots and blanket statements.  This disease allows us to justify our actions, allows us to be unencumbered with rules, because now, we’re protecting our loves from harms imagined or pre-conceived.  The ends now justify the means.  This disease pronounces “us” with a hiss.  This condition conjures up persecution and self-pity as an ally.  All our hard work, the sacrifices of our ancestors, all we have earned, at risk of being taken by the undeserving.  This disease gains strength in hubris.  Metastasizes with our pride.

This pre-existing condition goes to such lengths to kill, it can even save our life, can save the life of our loved ones.  For now, we can see harm coming from our past experience and have prepared the power to stop it.  It will promise protection against evil, even after death if we join.  It will comfort us.  It tells us we are safe here.  It becomes a natural part of our being.  We don’t even notice it anymore.  This disease feels normal, reliable, steady.  It makes us feel strong.  It gives us the intense satisfaction of being right.

This disease feels good.  It’s easy to see how it spreads.  The siren’s song undeniable.  Our vision, quite limited, mostly in miles, only in generations.  Everything this affliction can offer us is so inviting.  It can blur the past, waxing nostalgia, turns Norman Rockwell into reality.

This disease can even fool us into believing such a place exists where, with this disease in tow, we can feel safe.  Where our neighbors are like us.  Where things can stay the same or even get better.  It makes us think we can draw a line or move away, build a fence, a wall perhaps, that can keep us safe and the bad guys out.  It can make us believe that it’s possible for me to stay in the city and you can stay in the country, that we can indeed, stay where we belong.  It makes us believe this is feasible, even desirable.  It somehow convinces us we will be better off this way.  Apart.  Separate.  Divided.  It convinces us that this way, the strong will survive and carry mankind into the future.  It completely shuts off logic, math and physics.  Logically, compromise and assimilation are stronger, more sustaining than conquering.  People learning to cooperate together, with diverse concepts, united, much more superior in the long run than constant battle.  Mathematics proves, with every single person unique and different in their own way, we can never actually get to a point where it’s just “us”.  Physics proves a tangible wall can never be tall enough.  Yet this condition can twist our minds so much, reality is no longer a factor.  Science can be ignored, compassion, a sign of weakness, humanity, a pipe dream, critical thinking, for wimps, blind loyalty, the only qualification.  It swoons us into disregarding history, to believe in only us and no one else.  The only source of truth.  Those who disagree are infidels, liars or fools.  It convinces us that fear should be our driving force.  That there is honor among thieves.  The dividers, the heroes.   And that strength comes from hardware and steel.

This disease kills by slowly closing our minds.  Chokes us, little by little by hardening our hearts and exterminates us, drip by drip by blackening our souls.

This pre-existing condition has many names.  The more names, the stronger it becomes.  As many names as differences between us.  It goes by the name of Christians.  It can add more names with Methodist and Catholic, Protestant and Baptist, dividing us even more.  It goes by the name of Islam, rejoicing in the names Sunni and Shia.  Its name is Black or White, it’s called rich and poor, growing stronger with each class line drawn in between, above and below.  This parasite loves Republicans, embraces Democrats, it revels in Blond Hairs or Brown Eyes, unionists and the country club.  It loves borders and bunkers, is best friends with the Apocalypse.  It spotlights the terrible and minimizes, even ignores the positives.  It knows we cannot fight it divided, apart, and separate.

Its tool is fear and masquerades as love.  It can blind us so much, we don’t even see the weak as they fall by the wayside.  This ailment, this disease, this killer, this pre-existing condition, mankind’s most heinous malady.

Throughout time there has been a race for the cure.  Along the lines of mankind’s history, there has been people who had the courage and foresight to say, “Let’s not kill the stranger.  Maybe we can learn something we hadn’t thought of.”  Although at first, they were probably killed by that stranger or their own tribe, eventually we, somewhat, got the idea that interactions can be beneficial and we were better off with it than we were without it.  This disease took its first hit.

I believe this deadly creature took its worst blow on July 4^th, 1776.  Finally, a whole country born to fight it.  America cut a head off this disease back then, another in 1865.  We have battled to cut the heads that grew back since then, many, many times.  The beast never dying, always coming back.  Able to build immunities, learning to blend in even more, to become acceptable, with more powerful weapons, able to reach farther and deeper than ever before.

But it seems ironically, as I’m told, this monster cannot grow another heart. So it is the heart of the matter.  That’s the target we seek.  It’s perfect for the heart to be the key for mankind’s survival.  In turn, it’s perfect that the heart is the cure for this deadly condition.  We must stab the heart of this beast with the heart of our country.

To stop this disease, the heart is the goal.  So examine the heart of this country we love.  “…all men are created equal…” at the heart of us all.  What’s at the heart, the very purpose of this, our Founding Principle?  At its heart, the battle against this relentless foe.  Our country’s stated goal, to fight this killer.  To fight division, to fight our tribal instincts.  Its sole purpose, to unite our people.  The only way to unite every person?  Pronounce us all Individual.  Every single person unique.  A tribe of one.  Every single person like no other.  Each a minority.  Unanimous together.  All alike in the fact that we are all different.   Each and every one of us, an Individual.  To end our tribal divisions.  To unite our country.  To bring about a new world.

The heart of this country’s goal – to save mankind.  So imperative this goal, our Founders placed it as the one Founding Principle in this Brand New World.  They staked everything on this one Principle.  The survival of Humanity at the very heart of our beloved country.  The most noble cause known to all of mankind.  The eradication of this disease at the heart of our existence.

How can we forget or lose, even abandon this cause?  Is this pre-existing condition that strong?  Are we indeed, not strong enough?  I draw from history, while I still can.  I see how far we have come from the trees and the grasslands to the generations I have personally witnessed.  I see mankind is amazing.  I know we can be that strong.  We need to know this about us.  Each of us needs to know it about ourselves.  Go to the heart of the matter.  Look inside America’s heart.  Look inside your own.  Find that strength you know is there.  Find that key to kill this disease.  Find the love for our differences that this is all about.  Discover every person much more, so much more than we see.  Only this can unite us all.  The fact of our differences, each person, unique.  Only this, our common bond.  Equally unique.

This key can open a whole universe.  Infinity can be seen.  Hope lives here.  Charity lives here.  Love lives here.  Freedom lives here.  It has so much more to offer than a box or a line or a wall.  Look at the heart of America.  You’ll find that key.  Think about it.  Then tell someone.  Speak about it.  The most important and complex sentence in history deserves at least this.

I know we’re hitting a mountain with a stick.  The sighs of “impossible” can be heard world-wide.  The quest, so daunting, this condition, so ingrained.  Know that our Founders and patriots back then, from Independence Hall to the ports of Boston to the fields of Carolina had those same doubts, the same thoughts, heard those same sighs.  And look what they did armed with this stick.  Patriots have swung it now for 241 years.  Surrounded by that same cynicism.  Yet strong with that key measure of Hope.  Our Founders gave us this stick, as strong as all man.  This mountain we hit, not as strong as it looks.  Millions before us have found the resolve, have found the strength of this stick, they found the heart of “ all men, created equal”.  Our differences actually the catalyst which unites us.  This why, it’s so hard to grasp.  Our differences, our common bond.  All created equal in that every individual unique.  Each and every one of us with Life and Freedom unalienable.

Fight exclusive tribalism.  You’ll recognize it when you see it.  You’ll see it when someone hates Muslims or Christians or Jews.  Hates Blacks or Whites. Hates Gays.  Hates Republicans.  You’ll hear it, too.  It contains hate and usually ends with a hiss.  Fight this tribalism.  Fight this terrible disease.  Here, try this stick, made from the heart of our country.  You have found the strongest, most noble tool on Earth.   Please, for the sake of mankind.  Hit this mountain with it.  I’m there with you, along with the millions long before us and even more millions now.  Speak of this Principle.  Make sure when your tree falls in the forest, it does make a sound.  For someone heard it.  You do indeed, make a difference.  Mankind will thank you if this disease is cured.  And won’t be here to, if we don’t.  Spread the words.  This is who we are.  This, what America stands for.  This, our very Founding Principle.  To make: Out of the Many, One.