Chinook River Reverie (video and poetry)

Along the highway is a river that empties into the sea.  I always admire it when I pass by.  It is a serene inspiring setting strongly affected by the tides that wash in and out.

One time when passing by I had my camera.  As a result I can share the experience with you.


Included in the video is a brief poem I composed while standing there watching the water twisting and swirling like taffy being pulled with invisible hands.

All Things New: a plan for restoring American society based on Psalm 37

Something is going on.  Something is happening. Look around you. The entire world is responding in disapproval of the behavior of the United States.

At home the majority of folks have been struck down hard by Republican and Democratic lawmakers who have picked their pocket in yet another tax plan. This tax plan could very well be the most anti-human taxation proposed by the two ruling political parties. According to the United Nations the plan will create a greater economic equality gap in the U.S. with the poor becoming even more impoverished. While all poverty hurts it is poor children who are harmed the greatest. Whereas approximately 13 % of the general public is stricken with poverty, children are hit the hardest. According to the National Center For Children In Poverty 21 percent of children live in families that are impoverished.  

This means some kids don't have enough to eat.  I have volunteered at the food bank and helped pack boxes with food especially for kids to take in backpacks to school. It broke my heart to see so many people in need. It still does. It matters very little to our politicians who have the means to remedy the situation.  But they have other priorities.

With the passing of the healthcare legislation by the Republican and Democratic lawmakers it is finally evident neither party is acting with good will toward those who live on Main Street.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has voiced fears that millions of Americans will lose the healthcare they need due to the legislative activities of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who received from their corporate supporters  9.6 million dollars for their work on tax legislation during the first nine months of this year. (2017)  These statistics come from the website Open Secrets.Org. 

It should be apparent even to sheep with woolen cataracts that Republicans and Democrats both really just don't care for those who live on Main Street.  With friends like them we don't need any enemies, they'll do fine. 

Remember it has been Republican and Democratic lawmakers working together who have made America what it has become. Now it is what the people need to change if they are planning leaving behind a life worth living for those who come after. 
 


I'd say it's time to throw them out of office by electing people who value human life and want to transform the present social miasma into a society that operates on the basis of values originating from fairness and justice. That can be accomplished using the rules already in place if THE PEOPLE choose to do it.  

Why not choose to do it? Sounds like a good idea doesn't it? Otherwise, we're just victims of the fury.

The answer is blowing in the wind.  Or less poetically, questions are being asked and conclusions arrived at by Americans of every political persuasion. This unifying phenomenon has come about because most Americans are living in uncertainty and fear for what the future will bring as a result of the capricious anti-human legislative activities of the Republicans and the Democrats. 

Alternative news agencies, some helpful, some not, have brought startling and sometimes upsetting ideas into the political atmosphere. These are the voices blowing in the wind. It is the 'Spirit' of the present moment because it results from the anguish of our hearts, we are terrified of the future the Republicans and Democrats are determined to bring about.

So how are we to live and what are we to do to take control of the Ship of State from the profit crazed Ahab and his investors dragging us to our doom?

Well we can vote differently. We can stop voting for Republicans and Democrats, their plans are not the plans Main Street wants.  More importantly and more primary is the need to change our mind about how to accomplish bringing about a just society.

Arriving at a 'Just' society is in many ways a 'spiritual' endeavor. It is spiritual because it involves human beings interacting in ways that result in no one getting screwed and everyone getting benefited. 

Recently I read Psalm 37. It impressed me so much I made a video incorporating it into the themes of justice, fair play, environmental catastrophe and endless war.  

It is helpful, if not necessary, to understand our common existential condition from the perspective of our 'Bigger' picture. By that I mean the overwhelming mystery of the fact of existence. Something was smart enough to start the ball rolling, smart enough to direct things to become what we have decided to become.

If we look around it is not too difficult to understand a lot of bad choices have been made. If our problems are the result of the choices we have made what is stopping us from making different choices that will have different outcomes?

Here's the video I made.  It's titled "All Things New".

(Note.  In one in one of the images is a statement attributed to Benjamin Franklin.  It may not be correct.  However the sentiment is Franklin's sentiment.)