CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX. CLEAR AS ICE

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Mar 30, 2010 6:07 AM PDT

This chapter is devoted to Barack Obama, who demonstrated that the people of America care more about a positive, can-do attitude than they do about tough talk and promises from a man who has repeatedly proven himself willing to put his lust for power and fame above his concern for his own integrity.

 


Unfortunately, in the end history may show that the plutocrats who pay for presidential elections will not be denied by those who they choose to represent them in the world's most powerful position. After Obama made clear his willingness to advance the corporate agenda by voting to grant retroactive immunity to the telecom giants that facilitated the domestic spying initiated under Bush that remains unchanged today, he received George Bush's implicit seal of approval upon his election.

It was thus clear since before the election that the new President intended to put the crimes of the past behind us as if it never existed. As the war on civil liberties continues, he is being judged a criminal himself by those who think that a single standard should apply to all Presidents.

His past service for our nation notwithstanding, John McCain did not earn the right to serve as our President. After distinguishing himself briefly as a bipartisan Senator capable of learning from his many past mistakes, McCain betrayed himself and his constituents by compromising his integrity in pursuit of the Presidency. 

Having been ruthlessly savaged in the course of the coup that placed Bush in office in 2000, he chose to abandon every principled decision that he had courageously made in the past in his fruitless pursuit of power. The only revenge McCain enjoyed after bowing to the corporatocracy  in taking his shot at the golden ring was to keep Bush waiting when he went to accept his endorsement. In response, Bush danced a little jig for waiting reporters on the White House portico, spicing up that day's news  report.

While yet to prove himself willing or capable of fulfilling his promise of transparency and accountability in government, President Obama demonstrated in advance his understanding of the problems that America needs to face if it is ever to regain its standing as a world leader in the struggle to advance democracy in America and the world. His understanding of these issues is clearly spelled out in the Audacity of Hope. and in the subtext of some of his speeches. Now that he has proven that he meant for us to "be the change" in spite of him, it is up to us to understand that  we must become the leaders of that change from the grassroots level.

Among other things, Obama promised us transparency during his campaign . Unfortunately, he has been unable to deliver. The NSA is still as busy as ever prying into our private affairs outside the view of the sleepy eyes in the Senate who are constitutionally mandated to provide oversight and parental guidance to the bastard child of domestic spying that it created in an Act of mass hysteria following the suspiciously timed 9/11 attack. In passing the  “Patriot” Act, Congress further eroded its own authority. In once again surrendering the authority to declare war to George Bush, it shed the last vestige of power it had to provide a check on the power of what has become an Imperial Presidency.

The reader who was paying attention during the early days of the Bush coup regime will recall that the NSA was given the authority to do so by a reckless cowboy being spurred on by a sick-hearted psychopath. Cheney was of course working with rogue elements of the CIA who in turn were doing the bidding of the Bush, Saud and bin Ladin families and their allies in the corporatocracy. Among others in this elite group of corporate Puppetmasters were the CEOs of Halliburton and unnamed corporate members of Cheney's secret energy committee that met shortly after Bush's inauguration and shortly before 9/11. 

When the Senate found out that the Bush administration was in regular violation of the FISA Act that regulated illegal spying on Americans, it dutifully voted to retroactively provide immunity to the telecom giants that provided the means for this domestic spying. Obama voted for the immunity bill in what has become a disturbing pattern of protecting those who have committed treason in the name of "security."

Interestingly, the program was initiated prior to 9/11, even though that "unanticipated" terrorist attack was the excuse the Bush administration gave for breaking the law and to justify two wars . This was all in the name of protecting us from the terrorists whose plan should have been obvious from what was know to the FBI months in advance through two separate lines of investigation that were deliberately blocked.  After the fact, the illegal domestic surveillance program was given a veneer of legitimacy when a cowed Congress passed the Patriot Act.

The question is, who is now holding a gun to the President's head? Ollie North, G. Gordon Liddy, George H.W. Bush and certain others may  know but certainly aren’t talking about what is really going  on. You will recall Ollie North as the traitorous Marine colonel who armed the Iranian militants who captured Americans and kept them hostage until Reagan miraculously “rescued” them. 
North is treated like a hero and was rewarded with a nationally syndicated radio show rather than suffering the just punishment for all traitors to democracy. You may not know that this was financed by illegal drug trafficking hidden under the program of the "war on drugs" that has made Columbia such a useful ally to the Empire builders.

G. Gordon Liddy, the rat-eating cannibal of Watergate fame, is similarly lionized by the moronic right-wing corporate drones on his syndicated radio show. He is notorious among younger lovers of freedom and democracy more for counseling paranoid right-wingers to “shoot for the head” when ATF agents come to take their illegal assault weapons. You may recall that certain among them bought these weapons designed for war to defend their fundamentalist religious compounds where they keep hostage young female sex slaves, in accordance with the tenets of their “religions.”

Liddy is a former CIA agent who symbolizes the rogue elements of the agency who work for the corporatocracy and not for the President or the American people. One wonders whether there is any truth to the rumor that he was present on the grassy knoll in Dallas in late November of 1963 along with George H.W. Bush. He certainly seems to feel that he is protected by higher powers than are in the elected government of the United States. So much to know, so little time to act.

If America had truth in advertising laws, you could check this out on the Right Wing Nut Fascist Radio Network. God only knows what G. H. W. Bush is doing, since most of his actions in servicing the country are still classified. Meanwhile, Cheney is starting to have well-earned chest pains again, which any doctor worthy of the name realizes is most likely related to his anxiety over the distinct possibility of facing punishment for his crimes against humanity.
 

The myth that the angry white males have always held sway in electoral politics should have been disproven by the election of Ronald Reagan. His “Aw, shucks” positivism convinced Americans to take a chance on Bonzo’s roommate instead of sticking with the cautious optimism of the more realistic Jimmy Carter. Carter's worst fault may have been having too much faith in the ability of the American people to understand the difficulty of changing the direction of history by the power of faith.  

He may be the President from whom President Obama could learn the most. He was one of those Presidents who like Truman are likely to be judged much more favorably by historians than by his contemporaries. It is the victors of political struggles who write history, after all. The final story on the Carter Presidency will likely depend on the decisions of men like Obama than the judgments of Carter’s politically driven critics. Unlike Reagan, who made movies about war heroes, Carter served in the military with distinction. Unlike McCain, he is a man of deep moral conviction who was driven by his passion for doing what is right more than he was by the desire to satisfy the expectations of those around him.

Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention when he realized that it had been taken over by authoritarians so convinced of their own moral superiority that they presumed to speak for Jesus Christ and all of America in saying that God is a Republican. During his time of service in this organization, the right wing fanatics who abandoned any pretense of a separation between Church and State actually changed the bylaws of the Convention to endorse political activity rather than follow its founding principles that expressly forbade it. As a believer in a democratic Republic, Carter could not in good conscience claim to stand with them. 

A true conservative in matters of these basic principles, Carter typically chose principle over what others would call pragmatism. Baptist leaders represented a huge voting bloc of those from families that had become Democrats out of spite after the Civil War and who had effectively become Republicans out of racism after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. These became the core of the modern Republican Party and one of the reasons it has found it so useful to assault the wall between Church and State.

We are now seeing the effects of the breakdown of the wall between Church and State in the rise of one-issue voters who are willing to overlook the crimes of corporate politicians in their attempt to control the bodies of women, against the overwhelming majority of Americans who consider the decision of whether or not to seek an abortion as a question of personal morality not justifiably subject to governmental decree. 

This proved to be a crucial wedge issue that has driven Americans to fight Americans in a schizophrenic battle.  The issue pits traditional conservative values of personal freedom against the sacredness of life. Unfortunately, many of those who consider themselves conservatives regard life as sacred only until birth, after which they believe the  individual is on his own in a world they have made increasingly hostile by their common belief that it has always been so.  

The mainstream of traditional conservatism has always held that the wall between Church and State is an inviolate protection against the tyranny of the majority who might assault their religion if allowed to impose an alternative one on them. Each generation must relearn the lessons of the past in order to avoid dangers foreseen by their forebears. The battle becomes more difficult when waged against the absolute conviction that one side speak for God on every issue that is tearing America apart.

The loyalty of most of the religious Right has also proved to be a useful tool in building a coalition of the willing in the fight to impose fascist rule in America. It is time that more on the Left acknowledge that there is a growing religious Left whose members consider it their responsibility to work for the betterment of Mankind. They are ready, willing and able to join the fight for justice yet often reluctant to join groups whose members regularly demonize all religious  people under the foolish assumption that the corporate media accurately portrays all Christians as tools of the corporatocracy. 

More members of the religious Left are becoming active in social issues and electoral politics as individuals and not as members of churches. By contrast, many fundamentalist churches routinely violate the conditions of their tax-exempt status by advocating for specific candidates, sometimes with the threat of Hell for those who do not share their convictions.

It is dangerous when preachers use the power of fear to motivate their members, who are susceptible to authoritarian appeals because they grew up in homes where this was the norm. Every person wants the power to think for themselves, but most do not unless encouraged to by those whom they choose to associate. In general, these are the people who agree with them.

The good news is that even among religious fundamentalists a sense of social responsibility is beginning to emerge. It is a movement for more responsible stewardship of the Earth over which they believe God gave us dominion. If we are serious about winning the war against fascism, we will take our friends as we find them.

It was not always the case that Americans did not talk to each other about politics and religion. The intolerance of different opinions undermines the essential character of the United States that kept the Union together even in the wake of civil war. Since anger on both sides of the Vietnam War pit brother against brother, the divisions have deepened to the point that we must End the Civil War and Finish the Revolution if we are to end the threat of fascism in America and establish the democracy that all true Americans want to see.

It is into this grave crisis in the history of the United States that President Obama has willingly thrust himself. Let us hope that he finds the faith in the American people that will allow him to honor his Christian principles if he gets a Congress willing put the interests of the People over those of corporations. He remains a much better alternative to a man who had already proven to put his lust for power and fame above his concern for his own integrity.

While Obama has  failed to restore the government to one that serves the People, we cannot forget that he is surrounded by enemies of democracy and cannot do the job by himself. We must create the grassroots movement that will restore America to its true center. Until then, Obama will fail in trying to find the center that the corporate politicians and media portray as moving rapidly rightward. In a nation deliberately torn apart by politicians working for corporations to maintain their power and wealth, the only way to make the truth known is to show our numbers on the streets of America.

The strategy of divide and conquer has worked so well that most Americans have forgotten the basic lesson of the American Revolution: When challenging a government that has acquired the power to impose the will of an economic elite on the majority, we must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately.  We cannot aid the cause of the elites by dividing ourselves over anything less important than whether we agree that fascism in America must end.

The President cannot do this alone. He derives his authority to govern only from the consent of the governed. We can and must show him that the suffering citizenry of the United States can  once again work together to solve the critical problems threatening the viability of the American experiment in democracy. No President can change history without knowing that the American people are behind him or her when  preparing to grab the wheel of the ship of state and change course. 

While President Obama is toeing the corporate line now, the Democratic Party will respond to pressure from the base if we act in unison. Party leaders have bought so deeply into the assumption that they must satisfy the endless greed of those who control the purse that pays for their elections that they have abandoned the principles for which the party has always stood. 

In accepting the self-fulfilling prophecy that the best the so-called leaders of the Democratic Party can do is to follow a path of incremental reform, rank and file Democrats and the party as a whole have allowed themselves to be steadily pushed to acquiescing to fascist control of our government. As a result, the party has lost its moral compass and abandoned the principles by which it used to define itself. 

Now taking ten steps backward to each step forward, it defines success as incremental "progress" in merely slowing the rise of fascism. The Democratic Party has lost not only its identity but its soul, despite the many good men and women who are desperately trying to reform it from within. Any progress in furthering their stated ideals will only come by abandoning the assumption that they can serve two masters. We must demand the selection of real leaders. These are those who will take America support a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood. In making this a campaign issue, we can rid ourselves of members of Congress who choose to  follow the dictates of their corporate Puppetmasters.

The Republican Party has built a long history of anti-democratic actions that have taken it far from the values and ideals of its founders. The big tent is folding as their base realizes the truth about their agenda. Traditional conservatives who have philosophical differences with liberals must make common cause as American and work to make the Republican Party return to its roots. If they do not, they will never produce candidates willing to put their interests over those of corporations.

McCain abandoned his ideals rather than his career when all moderates were purged from the goose-stepping Republican Party. After being abused by the Bush machine in 2000, a man who had taken an oath to defend the Constitution with his life abandoned all honor, whether he typically chose to exercise the prerogative or not. The final proof of McCain's sellout to the fascists was his support of torture by the United States, knowing full well the consequences this could have for the members of the military that he had willingly put in harm's way. His past service for our nation notwithstanding, John McCain did not earn the right to serve as our President.
 
Bush was elevated to the Presidency in significant part by Bush family friend James Baker, acting on behalf of the Bush and Saud families and OPEC, through which the two families collude to control oil prices and optimize profits for their friends in this corporate war profiteering industry. George III had been selected and though not elected, was going to be installed. The Supreme Court cast a dark shadow on its own legitimacy in rejecting a challenge to Bush's purported election. The white collar riot halted the vote recount mandated by the state of Florida and therefore by the  US Constitution, proving that violence can be effective for a time if practiced by the state. However, a people raised in the belief that they have a right to be free will inevitably rebel against state sponsored terrorism directed against them.

In the outrageous decision of the Supreme Court that irreparable harm would be done to Bush by following the law, potentially irreparable harm was done to democracy in America. His supporters  dismissed all criticism of the decision as sour grapes and chortled as he plunged us headlong toward fascism, most notably through picking three young believers of the doctrine of original intent for the Supreme Court. The Five Stooges of the Supreme Court who produced Citizens United were  themselves placed in their lifetime positions  by the same corporate powers that selected Bush as their titular leader. These activist judges appear to interpret their duty as defending the right of corporations to rape the American people in return for their privileged sinecures.

It is crystal clear that democracy is in danger from these insane tools of corporate powers that are mindlessly but systematically destroying the world economy and the middle class. Powerful CEOs are using  the "rights" granted corporations by reactionary fascists on the Supreme Court to undermine those of the rest of us.  

This feat was accomplished by a deliberate misreading of the due process clause of the Fourteenth amendment that guarantees equal rights to "all persons born or naturalized" in the United States. It is the ultimate in irony that the Court used an amendment designed to free former slaves was used to give corporations the power to make economic slaves of us all.

  


The fate of a President who publicly challenges the will of the corporate Puppetmasters was made clear when the shots heard round the world rang out on December 22, 1963. Those of us who respect the office of the President must accept that he cannot change the world without the support of a People willing to look beyond the lies of the corporate media and have faith that the President will follow us when we demand that Congress Stop the Madness.

Truth is stronger than lies, however endlessly repeated by the corporate media. The pen is mightier than the sword and the truth will set us free. All that it takes for good men and women to succeed is that they decline to do nothing. If we stand by those who are being persecuted in the name of national insecurity, then there will be others to stand for us when the few, the debased and the shamed come for us. 

In 2010, may the best parliamentarians win in open and honest debate. It is clear to me that we the people are hungry for the truth, even those who close their eyes when they see it. Only when they are presented with alternatives to the usual Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber will they be forced to think. Brutal honesty over poll-inspired pablum must become a political asset. Soon, any aspiring politician will have to accept this and know that only the truth can set us free from our own political imprisonment.

In the immortal words of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson:

Don't think sorry's easily said.

Don't try turning tables instead.

You've taken lots of chances before,

but I'm not gonna give anymore,

don't ask me.

That's how it goes,

‘cause part of me knows what you're thinkin.'

Don't say words you're gonna regret.

Don't let the fire rush to your head.

I've heard the accusation before,

and I ain't gonna take any more.

Believe me,

the sun in your eyes

made some of the lies worth believing.

I am the eye in the sky.

Looking at you,

I can read your mind.

I am the maker of rules,

dealing with fools,

I can cheat you blind.

And I don't need to see any more

to know that

I can read your mind... I can read your mind.

Don't leave false illusions behind.

Don't cry, ‘cause I ain't changing my mind.

So find another fool like before,

‘cause I ain't gonna live anymore, believing

some of the lies, while all of the signs are deceiving.

I am the eye in the sky.

Looking at you,

I can read your mind.

I am the maker of rules,

dealing with fools,

I can cheat you blind.

And I don't need to see any more

to know that

I can read your mind... I can read your mind.

Rick Staggenborg, MD

From the BWI Red Roof Inn overlooking a “secret” NSA training facility outside Baltimore, Maryland on February 22, 2009.

CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN. THE TECTONIC PARADIGM SHIFT

This essay is devoted to the unknown author of the Biblical text found in John 8:32: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Few truths are as self evident as this. The international elite who are the self-appointed Masters of the Universe and their puppets in the US government are tightening their grip on the people of the United States. They do this to "protect" citizens who appear willing to trade their freedom for the illusion of secruity. Meanwhile, the international coporate terrorists who control the foreign policy of the U.S. expand the dominion of their corporate Empire by preemptive war on defenseless nations, while citizens who consider themselves politically aware waste their efforts arguing about which of the two corporate parties of the Duopoly best represents their interests.

Citizens of the U.S. and other western nations hope to be on the "winning" side in the dawning New World Order whose horrors they do not yet comprehend. These are people who still believe in the concept of nations in a time when international corporations are replacing governments in deciding the fate of the world.  Those individuals who are taking all of us down this path blindly accept the proposition  that life is an eternal competition for survival. They perpetuate this myth to maintain their power by playing on the hopes and fears of gullible citizens who  naively expect the defeat of terror at the price of their own liberty.

The idea that life is inherently a struggle between contending self-interests is a fallacy. The result of  failing to challenge this illusory vision of human nature would be the destruction of human civilization as we know it. Only by working together in the interest of humanity as a whole can we assure that the sins of our fathers will not be visited upon our sons and daughters.

It may seem that things are getting worse at this point in history, but it all depends on your point of view. If we focus on the continuing acts of reckless greed that are threatening the world economy, causing seemingly endless war and creating conditions for mass starvation, pandemic and increasingly frequent and severe environmental catastrophes, it is natural to conclude that human civilization may be already doomed. 

However, if we focus on the many positive signs that people are awakening and remember that our numbers give us the potential strength to resist enslavement in a permanent fascist New World Order, we will see things differently. It is only by going through the pain of the adolescence of humanity that we can learn from the mistakes of generations before us and give up the illusions of childhood. When we do, humanity will finally mature as a society of adults, ready to accept the responsibility of caring for our fragile species and leave a legacy of hope, peace and proseprity for our progeny.

Some compare humanity to a cancer, growing unchecked by natural barriers to growth and threatening to kill the organism from which it arose. However, unlike mindless cells or parasitic organisms, humans have the ability to direct their own evolution. We can choose to act to save our civilization by adapting not physically, but psychologically and spiritually to the threats we have created by our stubborn beliefs in dangerous ideas. We must abandon the belief in the supremacy of individual will over social needs and the idea that life is a zero-sum game in which only the strongest prosper, at the expense of the many. Failure to evolve our consciousness through an act of collective will and effort would be tantamount to mass suicide.

Transforming human consciousness may seem grandiose but it is not. Every major shift in human civilization started with an idea. If an idea has the power to capture the imagination of the multitudes and change how they interact with one another and with the natural world, change is inevitable. Those who argue that the dangerous beliefs that threaten our collective survival are "human nature" are mistaken. If their is one thing that can be said about human nature it is that it can be expressed in as many different ways as their are humans. The many men and women who have already realized the key to saving human civilization is to live up to the ideal of "liberty and justice for all" proves that the capacity to do so lies within each of us.

The very evolutionary pressures caused by human-caused global climate change have the potential to drive the shift in human consciousness that can save us. The threat of imminent demise may be what saves us. If we respond quickly enough, untold millions will die but human civilization may survive, chastened and changed for the better by its near-death experience.

Only when we are forced to challenge our most deeply held misconceptions will we succeed. The change has begun. It is almost imperceptible, as any exponential change is at first. However, it is a characteristic of exponential growth that at some point the rate of change grows so rapidly that transformation seems to have come from nowhere, like an algal bloom on a pond that appeared clear the day before.
With the power of the internet, our ability to communicate is amplified manyfold. People across the world struggling to find a way to change the course of human destiny can talk to each other directly. Through such personal interactions we can teach each other to reject the notion that conflict is inevitable. We can build a united international front against fascism and war at the grassroots level.

When a critical mass of people come to understand that our interdependence dictates that what is best for each of us is what is best for all of us, we will witness a tectonic paradigm shift in human consciousness. When we put aside the self-imposed distinctions that keep us from recognizing our common identity, consensus reality will change. Only then will democracy be truly possible. 
The most important lies that we tell ourselves are those that conceal the evil acts of leaders in government. Acceptance of atrocities as natural by the people in the nations whose governments commit them makes them complicit in these crimes against humanity. We can and must change the paradigm of consensus reality that accepts enslavement of people in weaker nations by powerful governments run in the interests of international corporations. The change begins when the individual accepts the interdependence of each of us with each other and the planet itself, but it can only become an exponential process if each of us dedicates ourself to awakening those around us to this reality.

Having come to understand that the survival of human civilization itself is in danger, each of us who have awakened must translate our understanding into political action, however we believe our efforts are best spent. Americans can begin to accept their responsibility to future generations by demanding a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the constitutional violations by the Cheney regime that have sown the seeds of fascism in the United States. These have laid the ground for wars of choice to maintain the powerful oil interests that put them in office, wars that continue under the Obama administration.

As of this writing, it remains to be seen whether President Obama intends to address global climate change that is threatening human civilization or whether he intends to offer any resistance to those who would subjugate the world through fear and threat of perpetual war. In seeking to move forward without looking at how we got to where we find ourselves, he is continuing down a path of self-destruction.

In the process of creating democracy in America so that it might flourish in the world, Americans must demand transparency and accountability for the crimes of those in the U.S. government and the shadow government who create conditions to justify wars of choice. This will entail declassifying documents hidden from public view under the Orwellian logic of “state security.” The leaders who have treasonously betrayed us and used war to further the interests of international corporations and those who benefit from these crimes against humanity must face our collective judgment. 

The list of these crimes includes the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the murder of democratic leaders throughout the world and the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations designed to make the chosen among the US aristocracy the rulers of a slave planet. War is the ultimate betrayal of humanity. That it persists in a world where there is only one superpower makes a mockery of the claim that the U.S. is a democracy. In a democracy, a free People who know the truth about what the goverment is doing in their name would not permit it to prey upon the rest of the world to benefit those who pay to put elected officials in power.

The true enemies of freedom are those stateless actors of the corporatocracy who direct the U.S. government and military to achieve their plans of world domination. The vast majority of elected officials in the U.S. are guilty of giving material aid to these international corporate terrorists and are thus guilty of treason. The idea of concluding an investigation with prosecutions is thus a fantasy. No serious investigation will ever take place if those in power had to face the same consequences as those they deem enemies of the state.

In the end, we must punish only those who lie to the Commission or there will never be an end to recriminations. Peace and freedom on Earth depend on facing the truth about what we have allowed our government to do in our name, then forgiving but never forgetting. Any American who has not devoted themselves to ending the crime of war and its attendant evils shares some measure of blame. No matter how heinous the crime, only by forgiveness can we hope to move on to a future where all participate in the salvation of an otherwise doomed planet. Vengeance will only breed the pursuit of more vengeance by the vanquished.

Let's end the Civil War that has raged in the US for decades and establish true representative democracy. Only then will we have the moral authority that will enable us to spread freedom, justice and peace throughout the world by our own example where we have failed to do so at the barrel of a gun. We must have some sympathy for the devil within all of us and find a way to forgive those who are have acted out of shortsighted, narrowly defined self-interest. We have all at times let selfish considerations into our hearts and allowed them to guide our actions. When we free ourselves from the this self-imposed enslavement of our minds, we will free ourselves from a desire for revenge that would only breed resistance to our efforts to create a world where our children can live free of fear of want and oppression.

In the immortal words of John Lennon:






When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom.
Let it be, let it be.

And in my hour of darkness
she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom.
Let it be, let it be.


Whisper words of wisdom,
let it be, let it be.

When the broken hearted people
living in the world agree,
there will be an answer,
let it be, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy,
there is still a light that shines on me.
Shine on till tomorrow,
Let it be, let it be.


I wake up to the sound of music,
Mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom,
Let it be, let it be.


Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.




Rick Staggenborg, MD

Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

This essay is dedicated to Mary Geddry, a brilliant and tireless ally of the Army of Soldiers For Peace International.

Mary is the mother of a Marine who served in Iraq and a self-taught engineer and businesswoman who has designed a highly efficient rooftop wind generator. While she is gearing up to put it into production, she is investing in designing software that will make the power so generated able to efficiently switch from the generator when active to a battery that will store energy when the wind is calm. 

Mary wants to place these on the roofs of commercial and municipal buildings and eventually sell the her patented design to an engineering firm that can downsize it for use on homes. Her long term goal is for communities to develop micro-grids linking these systems to local distribution points. She envisions these systems being owned and operated by local Public Utility Districts.

There are a couple of similar systems of which I am aware that are based on solar cells. One is in Northern California, as I learned when traveling through the area campaigning to put a single payer health care plan on the table early in last year’s “reform” debate that recently brought us the monstrosity of a bill that is reviled by conservatives and liberals alike, though for different reasons. 

Advocates of small, limited government do not believe it should be involved in our unique American non-system of for-profit medical insurance. Libertarians object to the mandate,  in keeping with their  monomaniacal focus on individual responsibility in a system rigged to make it nearly impossible for the average American to succeed. 

These opponents of the expansion of a system that works for millions of Americans so far despite the crippling costs of Medicare Part D are right to revile the legislation, but for none of the reasons they give. A mandate to buy private insurance makes little sense  if for no other reason than it will leave out millions of working Americans who will still not be able to afford insurance. Costs will price skyrocket as the new coverage requirements go into effect. with no serious cost controls in place. 

It defies logic to argue that we can mandate insurers to cover millions of sick they now deny coverage. It will  further deplete state resources by its underfunded mandate to expand Medicaid and force states to pay inflated yet still inadequate Medicare rates to providers.  How will advocates of limited governmental power react to a government "takeover" of the commercial utility industry?

Uncompromising advocates of a single payer health care system such as myself understand that the bill represents a sellout of the American people and a gift to the medical insurance, pharmaceutical and corporate health care industries that provide so much of the corporate money that pays for the propaganda blitzes every two years that keeps our Senators in their powerful offices. We will not see a day when the government acts in the interests of the People over corporations until we rid the Senate of its corporate Puppets.

Most of us have also come to understand the threat to representative democracy of corporations having the ability to buy Senators and dictate legislation through their deep-pocketed and generous lobbyists. Too often unrecognized is the corollary that this allows big oil and other war-based industries to manipulate events through the CIA and its traitorous corporate accomplices ,who keep fear and the ever present threat of endless war alive and in the subconsciousness if not the consciousness of the ordinary American.

Giving power to the people will result in giving electrical power and any money generated by its production to the people in our local communities. We can have free power generated and distributed locally, with profits used to fund schools and medical clinics in the community. By cutting as many as possible out of the main grid, we protect the grid from massive regional failures that are the inevitable result of centralized power generation. 

Our current system makes us vulnerable to attack by cyberterrorists in China and Russia, in addition to more obvious security issues. Taking it out of private hands and providing most power for free will boost the economy. It will make us independent of unreliable foreign sources and mercury-laden coal that is destroying our rivers and mountains, devastating and poisoning our people and generating massive amounts of greenhouse gases that threaten human civilization. Most importantly, it will take power away from the incredibly selfish and shortsighted men who have created endless war and environmental degradation in their pursuit of profit and the power to enslave the planet.

Ultimately, if the people take charge of their government they can force it to provide for the common welfare and ensure domestic (and international) tranquility, as promised in the preamble to the Constitution that lays out the purpose of our national government. 

When the people recognize their collective power, they can demand an affordable and sustainable system of universal health care, the conversion of our economy to a localized, sustainable one not dependent on products produced by slave labor in China, greenhouse and mercury producing coal or oil and nuclear resources obtained from unstable and volatile regions where we are fighting both cold and hot wars. Only when we acknowledge and act upon our God-given right to choose freedom over economic slavery will the promise of democracy be fulfilled.

The surest means of seizing and holding on to the reins of government is through a Constitutional amendment abolishing corporate personhood that nullifies the decision of the Five Stooges of the Supreme Court in Citizens United. We can and must do this by supporting the campaigns of the many men and women prepared to put their lives on hold to run for the Senate without reliance on corporate money. Once in office, these patriots will represent the People and not the corporations that are bleeding America and the world dry and destroying wealth and the middle class of America with their endless pursuit of control of the world’s energy supply.

It is possible to pass the amendment abolishing corporate personhood within two election cycles. Perhaps this will avoid the prophesied Armageddon projected by the Mayans and others to occur in 2012.  At the very least, the imminence of the fulfillment of this ancient prediction could wreak havoc in the Democratic Party, given their abysmal performance in bringing about the change the United States needs to survive beyond that year.  

Perhaps the destruction that was predicted to occur will be to theirs and the other corporate party. The signs have been seen in the decline in Republican Party membership and the losses to Democratic ranks in 2010 by crank Tea Partiers financed by corporate interests. If we can educate partisan supporters of the corporate duopoly, we can restore democracy to America.

If introduced now, the amendment to abolish corporate personhood would force the 36 Senators up for re-election to choose between serving the corporate Puppetmasters of the Senate or serving the People who elected them. I wouldn’t bet on the chances of anyone foolish enough to argue against it. 

We are gearing up to raise awareness of the issue and mobilize the people to fight for what we have earned through the sweat of our brow and endless sacrifice for ourselves and our families. With the support of the majority of American voters, victory in the War to Take Back America for the People is assured. 

A small vanguard of those who consider themselves conservatives are beginning to join forces with those who consider themselves liberals to wipe out the weaker corporate coup plotters. With the aid of we who have trained in the military, we will free the American people to assume control of the government and their collective destiny.

This is the essence of a plan to fight the War to Take Back America for the People. We are putting into place the troops to attack in flanking movements from the Left and the Right. We can join forces in the middle after the bloodless battle is over and turn over the government to civilian command once the traitors in our midst are removed from power. 

We will support and defend our Commander in Chief, as long as possible, but he seems to be a hostage to the corporations that control the traitors in the Senate and thus are holding him as a virtual political prisoner. They essentially succeeded doing so with Bill Clinton. As the Army of the Soldiers For Peace International grows in numbers and strength, we will be prepared to launch this coordinated attack.

In the immortal words of Graham Young:


Soldiers of peace are not fighting a war
Are not looking for enemies behind every door
Are not looking for people to kill or to maim.
Soldiers of peace are just changing the game.


Men who were fighting for all of our lives
Are now fighting for children, for homes and for wives,
Fighting for the memory of all who fell before,
But the soldiers of peace just can't kill any more.


So come all you warriors who live for the fight,
Come listen to somebody, someone who might
Have been there before you and they have the right,
They've been dying to tell you the score.
The old warriors don't want you to hurt any more.

Soldiers of peace can still hear the cries
When the people were screaming and losing their lives,
When bodies were broken and spirits were torn
The soldiers of peace do not want you to mourn.


So come all you warriors who live for the fight,
Come listen to somebody, someone who might
Have been there before you and they have the right,
They've been dying to tell you the score.
The old warriors don't want you to hurt any more.


Soldiers of peace are not fighting a war.
No more! No more! No more! No more!


Rick Staggenborg, MD
Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE. A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Mar 30, 2010 9:59 PM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Quincy, the precocious tweenager who represented Jesus in the Passover processional at my favorite UCC church in the Portland area.

This was Quincy's second year portraying Jesus, but it was a bit different this year, thanks to our ever-inventive pastor. This time, she went to the alter in procession with followers waving palm leaves, while other parishioners approached from the opposite entrance dressed in helmets and carrying swords and shields, representing the Roman soldiers come to guard against rioting they feared might be provoked by this radical new rabbi who had found an eager following of those eager to hear his message.

I was asked if I wanted to participate. Looking at our young angelic Jesus smiling in anticipation of her role in the first joyful Act of the Passion play, I readily agreed. When the procession started. I followed close behind her with a palm leaf in my left hand and a Roman sword in my right, held at my side but at the ready to defend the Princess of Peace should she be threatened in the midst of her triumphal entry into “Jeruselam.” I walked behind her with respectful attention, my eyes kept ever on her until I saw the approach of the Roman guard. I moved a step closer to her, now watching the Romans with unflinching gaze as they approached menacingly with swords drawn. As expected, I did not attempt to engage them but stood at the ready for the young Master's order.

I don't know if anyone there understood the message I was trying to convey. I saw myself as a Roman convert to Jesus' teachings, keeping my aggression in check but ready to defend his/her right to speak the truth to the subjugated people of Israel, if only they would listen. I knew that in the final act of the Passion play Jesus would willingly go to the cross, but I wanted to convey that never again should we give in to forces seeking to subjugate us without raising a hand in self-defense. Jesus died for a higher cause, since his death inspired millions and his thinking changed the world, though it was not enough to save the temple from destruction at the hands of the very invaders of whom Jesus tried to warn his fellow Israelites.

The lesson was not lost on Mohammed, who stated that he had received a message from an angel sent by God and whose words are said to have been written down as they were recited, rather than decades or centuries later. The Qua'ran clearly states that it is not permissible to fight and kill unless no choice exists but to submit to slavery. Only when escape is made impossible and the faith is not allowed to be practiced is it permissible to fight to defend one's freedoms of belief and of conscience.
 

Mohammad (bless his Holy name) taught that if an enemy tries to enslave you then it is your moral duty to resist. In victory, it is your moral duty to forgive and welcome as friends those who had chosen to be your enemies. This is how Islam spread during Mohammed's life, though the lesson was too soon forgotten, just as many people who think themselves Christian have forgotten that Jesus' central message was to love others as one would want to love herself. This was the only message necessary to understand the rest of his teachings, which were merely elaborations on this theme.

One does not have to be religious to believe in the golden rule, though some version of it is to be found in Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism as well. Secular humanists point out that one need not believe in God or the holy spirit to act in accordance to this simple principle. Why, then do so many professed Christians rationalize their failure to even attempt to fulfill this one simple wish of the man they call God on Earth. Confident that their belief alone will save them, they miss Jesus' clear teaching that it is not enough to believe, but one must act on that faith to bring the kingdom to Earth.

Where fundamentalist Christians get the idea that Jesus is going to save them from their own selfish decisions is beyond me. It seems clear that Jesus has already taught us how to free ourselves from enslavement by the corporate Puppet Masters of the Universe. As we were created with free will and life is about choosing between right and wrong, it seems clear to me that Armageddon is but one possible result of our choice, and the other is to assure that the Kingdom will come to Earth if God's will be done on Earth, as Christians pray every time that they recite the Lord's Prayer.

Faith led to the Passover and saved many children of Israel. We must have faith in ourselves and our collective power to save Israel, America and the world from the threat of permanent slavery. We have nothing to fear but fear itself if we accept the idea that the good must necessarily triumph over evil if good men choose to act rather than pray for salvation from another. For the religious, it is taken as a given that God is more powerful than evil, so why do they fear death or even more trivially, loss of Earthly possessions? For the faithless, why do you fight so hard if you do not believe that you can win? Take it from someone who will never accept the words of another man as absolute truth. Whether God exists or not is not relevant to moral decision making and morals are essential for integrity of the self, if not the soul. The important thing is to act in accordance with the Golden rule if you wish to leave your children a world worth inheriting.

In the words of Ray Stevens:

Jesus loves the little children,

all the children of the world.

Red, yellow black or white,

they are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Everything is beautiful,

in its own way.

Like the starry summer night

and the snow covered winter's day.

If there's God in Heaven,

the world's gonna find a way.

There are none so blind

as they who will not see.

We must not close our minds,

we must let our thoughts be free.

For every hour that passes by

you know the world gets a little bit older.

It's time to realize that beauty lies

in the eyes of the beholder.

And everybody's beautiful

in their own way.

If there's God in Heaven,

the world's gonna find a way.

We shouldn't care about the length of his hair

or the color of his skin.

Don't worry about what shows from without,

but the love that's there within.

We're gonna get it all together now

and everything gonna work out fine.

Just take a little time to look on the good side my friend

and straighten it out in your mind.

Everything is beautiful

in its own way.

Like the starry summer night

and the snow covered winter's day.

Under God's Heaven,

the world's gonna find a way.

Rick Staggenborg, MD

Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER EIGHTY. WHAT IF GOD WERE ALL OF US?

This chapter is dedicated to Siddartha, who renounced his Brahmin status in Indian society to find the true meaning of life. By the time of his birth, Hindus had fallen into a class society that did not respect the equality of men.  He rejected the assumption that he was superior to others because of the circumstances of his birth. He found a path to enlightenment that required rejecting such notions of separation from others and embracing a sense of the interconnectedness of all things.

The teachings of Vishnu as Siddartha explained them led to Buddhism in all its beautiful variety, and profoundly influenced Christianity and Islam. I am sure that Shiva is enjoying the dance as it winds to an end. Ganesha is very busy placing obstacles in the paths of the corporate Puppetmasters and clearing paths for the members of Soldiers For Peace International and all of our friends who are helping us assure that democracy, freedom and justice become a worldwide pandemic. Help us spread the ease of viral wellness. Vishnu/the Eternal One/Yahweh/God/Allah is surely smiling at what we are creating, a world fit for our children to inherit.

Although I have only recently begun to study comparative World religions, I have been on my spiritual journey on Earth for over half of a century. It has not taken me long to conclude that if we have a purpose on Earth that has been revealed to us through the prophets and other great scholars of revealed wisdom, it is clearly to become aware that we are one people, bound to a Higher Power through what Christians call the Holy Spirit.

I am not religious, but I have a deep and abiding faith in God, revealed wisdom and the Universal truths to be found in all great religious texts. I am a scientist and a realist. Therefore, I reject the null hypothesis inherent in “realpolitik.” The idea that being realistic means accepting the concept that nations must compete for power and resources implies that war is inevitable. Either the optimist or the pessimist can be judged a realist, depending on whose vision prevails. If we truly believe in democracy, we will restore it to the United States and help it flourish throughout the world, as God surely intends. This does not depend upon the will of some entity that is separate from us, because we are all connected to one another, according to all the great spiritual leaders.

I have no desire to offend the concrete thinkers who teach the literal truth of a text that was created by a committee called together by a politician who chose the participants. However, it is hard for me to accept that such a group of men three living hundred years after Jesus could divine which of the many commentaries written long after he passed from us represented the true story. In addition, the ambiguity of the words used in the original language of the texts led to many different Bibles in different languages that differ in many respects. If one ponders the meaning of the story of the Tower of Babel with an open mind, one might conclude that it was a warning to those who would seek to understand the nature of God through the sacred texts without considering the nuances of meaning reflected in the various translations.

One surely cannot know the meaning of revealed wisdom as filtered through many men at different places and times unless we consider the various versions of the meaning of the religious texts that men and women throughout the world have concluded represent the truth about the nature of God and the meaning of life. 

Each of the various religious models leads us to view the world through a different lens. It is helpful to remember the parable of the twelve blind monks who tried to grasp the nature of the elephant by touch alone. It was only when they carefully and clearly communicated their sense impressions that they began to understand its true Form. Only by cooperating and approaching our philosophical differences can we come to an understanding of the platonic form of the “elephant” that is God.

As a scientist, I try to consider my hypothetical God as a hologram that must be viewed from many angles to understand its essential nature. We have had descriptions of the visions of the prophets at many times in different places throughout history. This means that to truly understand it, we must understand the historical context of various religious texts to grasp what the writers were trying to say.

Thus, we must rely on the academic integrity of historians, physicists, archeologists, biologists, psychologists, linguists, logicians and theologians if we want to seek the truth that God has revealed to us about the nature of the reality of our physical world, and the next dimension we call by the various names in various systems of religious and scientific thought.

This is a critically important task, for these men and women are the seekers and dreamers who have guided our collective destiny over the millennia since consciousness arose in the minds of our ancestors. It is only through approaching the understanding of various religious thinkers and often atheistic scientists throughout time and space in a spirit of love and respect that we can hope to accomplish the task of solving the puzzle that God has set before us. No one person has the time to study and understand all these things. The leading experts in these fields often do not agree, so the best that we can hope for is to grasp the essential conclusions that they have collectively made.

That Americans buy into the notion that King James had selfless motives when he chose to write a standard Bible defies common sense. It is as if Christian fundamentalists do not grasp the fact that we fought the Revolution so that we might be free to think and act for ourselves. The idea that the King had a divine right to decide our faith and our actions is patently ridiculous and frankly un-American. It is our moral duty to follow our own consciences if we choose to seek knowledge of God’s nature and will.

If our collective consciousness becomes one in which the values of equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all men and women of the Earth is regarded as common sense assumed by every child and if we all act accordingly, I believe that God and Mankind will become one, bound by the Holy Spirit.

Scientists beleive that the ultimate fate of the Universe is determined by the amount of matter it contains. If the matter exerts a gravitational pull sufficient to cause it to begin to collapse upon itself, it will presumably initiate a fusion reaction that will create another Big Bang. This is the model that seems to me to be suggested in the conception of Shiva as the creator and destroyer of worlds. If the Universe  were to have insufficient mass to slow its expansion it would expand forever until it loses all but its rest energy, all matter comes to a uniform temperature and all change ceases. As the absence of change is a form of death, this is referred to as the heat death of the Universe.

The only other possibility is that the amount of mass is just enough to create a stable Universe that has no beginning and no end. If the Universe is found to be closed and time-space is a loop, there is no beginning and no end. If the Universe was not an accident and as most humans believe was created by an act of will, it seems to me that the ultimate goal would be to create a stable physical Universe where there was once none. This is how God can be both the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  As I will elaborate on in the following argument, it may be that it is our duty and our destiny to make God whole, as it was in the beginning, is now and forever shall be in five-dimensional space.

If God created Man in its own "image" it must mean that they share the same essential attributes, as this cannot possibly refer to physical attributes. It seems reasonable to interpret this to mean that God created Man endowed with its essence, which I conceive of as pure Love. As the Bible argues that God first created the angels, I would further postulate that they were in fact created of God's pure essence and were fully aware  of their relationship to it.

The angels may be our true selves and we their Avatars, born without conscious knowledge of our relationship to God. If this is the case, it is reasonable to postulate that God exists to us wholly only at the point that we again recall our relationship to it, as we have attempted to so since before we had developed the rudiments of science. 

The search for meaning seems to be a hardwired attribute and the earliest search for meaning sought to understand our origins and the purpose for our existence. These have not become questions only appropriate for late night discussions in sophomore dorm rooms, even if most of us quit asking them after that period in our lives.

At the dawn of consciousness, we were much more dependent on the inutition of our right brains than on left brain linear thinking. Now that our left brains have developed sufficently to have a logically coherent model of physical reality, we may be able to come up with a model of God that is consistent with our model of physical reality and the essence of religious teachings of the nature of God. These essential truths were revealed to those most open to re-establishing the experience of being one with it. Jesus told us that the new commandment was to love one another as we would love ourselves.

Perhaps this is not only the way for Mankind to live peacefully on an ecologically balanced Earth, but the path to a unified theory of God that we can all accept. I believe that this goal can and must be achieved in order to save Mankind from the self destructive course that following the dark angels of our nature has put us on. If we listen to the angels of our better nature, we can come together in an ecumenical way to discuss the commonalities as well as the differences in our beliefs.

If there is only one objective reality and if God is part of it, then we have a duty to come together so that the faithful might quit killing each other over the differences and learn to love one another for what we share in common. Even if all the evidence for the existence of God is a nearly statistically impossible coincidence, the future of human civilization may depend on our seeking a concensus on the question that is as old as Mankind itself.

Our current focus on the violent resolution of our differences is futile. Violence begets only more violence and hatred. Each of us has longed for an end to poverty and war, but they will never end until we understand that we are al in this together and our collective fate is in our hands.

If our bodies are but complex Avatars of our true selves, we must in reality be five-dimensional beings. I believe that it is our collective consciousness in the fifth dimension that is what we call God. If true, it is a consequence of our being bound by four-dimensional space-time that we cannot directly see ourselves as we are from the perspective of the four dimensions that our bodies inhabit.

If we were to view our four dimensional selves from this fifth dimension, we could see not only our whole lives but all of our past and future, just as from the perspective of the three-dimensional space that our bodies occupy we can see the past and future through memory and the passage of time, respectively. We cannot directly perceive time, but we infer it because we see change as we move from one moment to the next, thanks to the existence of memory.

In a similar way, we cannot perceive the fifth dimension directly but if we begin with the hypothesis that God exists and that it created us, we must come up with a model of God that is in accordance with our experience and with our models of physical reality.

In beginning with the assumption that we are five-dimensional beings, I believe that I have constructed such a model as a starting point for a discussion about the nature of God, if it exists. I believe that it also implies a potential proof of God's existence, but will leave that as an exercise for the interested reader. I will say that there are hints to the proof throughout this book, but a full exposition of the truth is beyond its scope. The only other clue I will give is that while it is impossible to prove a negative proposition, it is possible to approve an assertion by proving that its negative leads to a contradiction. Thus, atheism is a faith based on illogic.

As explained through simple analogy in Flatland by the mathematician and theologian Edwin Abbott, who wrote as A. Square in this popular work on topology, 5-space is the only vantage point from which to directly view all of the history of this universe. The existence of worlds existing in another dimension can be inferred from observation and rigorous logic, but not viewed directly.

If one understands how to calculate probability the educated, alert and open minded person can see for her- or himself the evidence in daily experience of the existence of God and the angelic nature of our selves and our fellow inhabitants of the planet we share. I believe that angels are indeed among us, unconscious in most cases of the task before us or their role in saving us from self-destruction.

Flatland was Abbot’s admirable effort to communicate his understanding of topology to the lay reader. He wrote using a pen name because as a theologian I suspect that he recognized the theological implications of his mathematical conclusions. Given the rigorous logic it takes to understand these things, it is likely that he came to similar conclusions to those that I described in the previous paragraphs.

This theory of God implies that Heaven is where our true selves already dwell. It is where we rest and watch the grand Passion play that we act out on the stage of this planet until our bodies fail us and we are called home. I believe that we exist fully as individuals only in this Fifth Dimension. In four dimensional time-space, we exist only as Avatars of our true selves, playing out our parts in the cosmic dance that Shiva celebrates.

If my assumption that God is the collective consciousness of ourselves as we exist in five-dimensions, then collectively we are God. If God can create or destroy the world, then we have that power collectively. Jung told us that there is a collective unconscious. Freud began to show us how to make the unconscious conscious.

We must become conscious of our collective power to save human civilization from the consequences of unchecked greed and radical individualism in the guise of "personal freedom." If we are conscious of the fact that we have the power to create our own future, then it is up to us individually and collectively to abandon the illusion of our separation from one another and face up to the reality that the time has come to choose between fighting each other out of ego or to fight for each other out of love.

I pondered all this recently while I listened to the words of our beloved pastor in the beautiful United Church of Christ that I attend when I can and which I consider my Church home. I basked in the love I received from those around me while I soaked in the wisdom that she so creatively and entertainingly imparted to us.

It is her desire and her nature to inspire others to walk with her for awhile each week to consider the understanding that she has acquired from pondering her study of the teachings of other great thinkers throughout history as seen from the vantage point of herself and those of those she loves. They share their understanding freely share among themselves and their loved ones in their various places of worship and reflection. As usual, I came away with much to ponder and incorporate into the personal belief system that guides the moral decisions I am faced with every day as a doctor, aspiring politician and dutiful citizen of the United States and the world.

I am reminded at each visit in this wonderful place of learning that we all have important roles to play in collectively avoiding a terrifying end to human civilization and instead fulfill our weekly pledge to attempt to do God’s will on Earth as we do in Heaven. As our pastor reminds us each week, when a critical mass of humanity understands that if Christ’s commandment is followed freely, God's Kingdom will come to Earth as it is in Heaven.

Believing all of this, I am sometimes briefly overwhelmed by emotion. The empathy my pastor inspires in me can cause me either such pain or such joy that tears begin to well in my eyes. I have to remember that she also taught me that when my cup runs over, I must remember to catch my breath, relax and let the torrent of the Holy Spirit that is God’s love for us wash through me.

She has taught me that this love springs from an infinite well and that we must share it or burst. In helping other to share in our joy, the love and the joy only grow within the Gardens of our souls. We then have an abundant harvest to share with others, who gradually learn to do the same.

This is how we will become the doctors who will heal ourselves, our loved ones and the planet itself. I believe that it is our duty to God and to each other to help everyone we encounter to understand what I regard as these truths.

If all of this is true, it follows that at the end of time, God and the Universe itself will become whole and complete. We will be utterly free to create new worlds in which to dwell individually and collectively. God and Mankind will become one and the same, and we will follow no master but our true selves. Shiva can finally pause from the dance, should he choose to so. As for myself, this is the place where I already dwell. To those who have read the entirety of Stop the Madness: The Diary of a Soldier For Peace in the War to Take Back America as written so far are free to join me in my journey. Welcome to my world. Help me invite others in.

Please join me in this prayer:

Our Father/Mother who dwells in Heaven, hallowed be our name.

Our Kingdom will come when your will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Let us share our bread today with those who hunger.

We understand that we are forgiven our errors and our sins.

Help us find the strength and love to ease the burden of those who have erred and hurt us.

Guide us to the Holy Spirit that will enable us to forgive those whose role in our collective destiny was to be blinded from the path from which we, the fortunate, have not strayed.

Help us to understand that they were burdened with task of giving us pain so that we might remember that our role is to experience the joy of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Help us remember to follow the Angels of our better nature. May Ganesha, your wise elephant-headed Avatar always be with us to place obstacles in our paths when we are about to misstep and to trip those selfish individuals who would harm us out of their perceived self-interest rather than a sense of duty to lead our lost tribes to the perfection that we seek for ourselves, individually and collectively.

We believe with all our heart and souls that when we teach our fellow men and women these simple truths, our Kingdom will come to Earth, as our Will will finally be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Amen.