March 09, 2022

01

Realization springs to mind,
seemingly out of nowhere,
but it is cultivated through awareness
and relaxed contemplation,
mulling things over,
sitting still and taking a walkabout.

Or actually walking about
in the same stillness that sitting 
can produce.

Realization dawns on us as we
hold contradictory thoughts in mind,
without being troubled
by opposites--polarities--
that cannot be reconciled or resolved,
but only held in tension,
while we wait to see what will happen
to bring the mysterious "Third Thing"
into the equation
and changes everything.

Striving for solutions,
and forcing our will upon the situation,
are not helpful ways to see what's what
and hear what is being called for.

Walking two paths at the same time
means carrying the stand-off with us
while we go about the business that needs tending,
compassionately aware of all things
and emotionally disengaged from everything
pressing in from every side.

Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

Waiting for the door to open,
and walking through when it does.

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02

The foundation of democracy--
the adamantine,
unmovable and unmoving,
solid rock upon which democracy stands
is the doctrine
of the separation of church and state.

Religious freedom
is freedom FROM religion!

Fascism is selling religion,
because religion is the easiest way
to control its followers,
and so the old saying,
"When Fascism comes to America
it will have an American flag in one hand,
and a Bible in the other."

The ground of the Fascist Party's approach
to making converts and blinding voters
is a religious ground.
They posit themselves as the savior
of True Believers,
and portray Democrats as Demon-crats,
worshipers of Satan
and the instigators of unmentionable horrors.

Fascists have no political platform.
Theirs is a religious platform.
They are here to protect and save us from THEM!
"Trump may not be the best man in the world,
but at least he is not a DEMOCRAT,
and he won't take your guns away,
or force women to have abortions,
or turn your children into homosexuals!"

Fascists play on the fears that they implant
in their Base to turn out the vote,
which is also skewed by gerrymandering,
supported by the courts which the Fascists control
and state legislatures which the Fascists also control,
to create a tight Fascist world
where everyone can be safe at last--
everyone who is like they are,
and no one who is not.

When Jesus said,
"You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free,"
he was talking about freedom from thought-control
imposed by the Jewish authorities
and the Roman rulers. 
Fascism has been around forever.
Truth is the only protection against it.

Truth that asks all the questions 
that beg to be asked,
and says all the things
that cry out to be said.

Fascism burns books that raise
the wrong questions
and say the wrong things.
And cluster bombs countries
who stand against Fascism.

The only place safe from Fascism
is the heart and mind of those
who think for themselves,
see what they look at,
know what they know,
and relish the right kind
of emptiness, stillness and silence,
free from the noise, complexity and lies
of the world according to Fascism.

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