CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT. THE RULES OF THE GAME

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on May 26, 2010 7:15 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Edwin Abbott Abbott, the English schoolmaster, theologian and acute social commentarian who wrote the novella Flatland in 1884. This little gem was many things but to me it was primarily an introduction into thinking about multidimensionality. I have found this an invaluable tool for speculating about the interface between science and faith. 

As the Dalai Lama pointed out recently, the end of war requires a faith that transcends any one religion. One has to have faith in the essential goodness of men and women to have the faith that we are capable of governing ourselves.  To reject the concept that man is inherently evil is to accept the essential assumption of democracy. This is the underlying premise in the message of Vishnu, Krishna, Buddha, many Old Testament prophets, Christ and Mohammed in their admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves or as members of our family.

We each view the world from a unique vantage point. Abbott’s alter ego A. Square meets the consciousness that exists in the point in space-time known Abott calls Pointland. We all exist in our own reality, much like the sole resident of Pointland. Having learned of higher dimensions from a Sphere, Square recognized that Point’s belief that he is God reflected his ignorance of the existence of higher dimensions of reality.

We too can delude ourselves into thinking that we understand objective reality and that everyone who lives with a different understanding is “crazy.” The truth is that all models of reality are like buildings. They are constructed of component parts that only together constitute a structure. This is a simple analogy to the reality that each of us constructs from viewing the world from our own unique perspective. 

Just because scientists know more about their areas of specialty than we do, we do not need to accept the prevailing paradigms in constructing the model of reality we create for ourselves that allows us to make what passes for sense in the world we share with others. However, it requires an unusually keen sense of what is important in our seemingly chaotic world to begin to perceive the patterns of events that may be clues to the existence of the higher planes of existence which are the only place where reality can conceivably be directly experienced. 

Only through the rigorous application of logic is it possible to develop a truly coherent world view. The time required to study and reflect on the models of reality that scientists have developed and the effort that this takes makes it unachievable for all but the most dedicated student of life. We must learn how to sort "common sense" and appeal to authority from ideas that do not depend on granting undue authority to ideas that are merely popular with society or even the community of scientists in a field. 

While it is more logical to suspect that the body of scientists who support a given theory are more likely to be right than the dissenter, we have to remember that Einstein was not accepted at first because so few of the scientists of his day were able to understand his theories. Only when they made testable predictions that proved true despite violating "common sense" were his ideas universally accepted. Even so, Einstein himself refused to accept the possibility that events in space-time are probabilistic rather than deterministic.

I have been blessed with growing up in a supportive and loving family in a nation where my formative years were at a time that education was valued and supported by society.  I found learning rewarding and was blessed with teachers who taught me how to think, not what to think. We are in danger of losing this without a concerted effort to strengthen and feed our children’s minds through a publicly supported educational system. Jefferson warned us that we cannot keep the Republic if we do not assure that we raise educated and open-minded children.

The loss of control of our nation has occurred under the watch of those of us who were blessed with the gift of our the opportunity to thrive in a society that was coming to consider every American as equal.  It is our duty to combat the vicious inequality that pits brother against brother and family against family in modern US society. Only by doing so can we restore the nation to economic, political and moral vitality. This is our responsibility if our grandchildren are to realize the promise of our forebears. Many have died so that this nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal, shall not perish from the Earth.

Chess is a model of war that is played out in a two-dimensional world where three-dimensional men are nothing but pawns in the game. The players who move the pieces have to think in four dimensions, envisioning the changes that they want to make in the pattern of the chess pieces in the course of time, the fourth dimension. What the smug players in the global game of chess  don’t know is that their game of Risk may be played out on a higher dimension in which all their moves are anticipated.

One way of considering reality is to choose to believe that humans are but Avatars of their true five-dimensional selves that exist on Earth and Eternity at the same time, as viewed from a five-dimensional perspective. If that is true, things may not be as they appear to us and the game of life and death may be more complex than we realize, yet ultimately one that can be won.

In Flatland, Mr. Square comes to realize that his world view had been limited by his failure to consider the implications of what he observed until he is confronted with direct evidence that he exists in more than two dimensions. 

The “wise” Sphere who materializes in front of him moves through four-dimensional time-space in synchronicity with the changing perspectives of Square. Thus, as Sphere moved through the plane of Flatland, Square first saw a point in front of him, then a gradually widening circle that grew to a maximum size before vanishing. Sphere used this graphic demonstration to provide the clues in the three dimensional time-space the consciousness of Square inhabited that could be used to deduce the literal and demonstrable existence of a fourth dimension not be directly perceivable from three dimensions.

Until Sphere descended from “Heaven” everyone on the globe that residents of Flatland thought of as the universe were ignorant of the existence of a higher dimension that must exist for their world to be as it was. In Flatland, this higher dimension is only what we would call “up.” 

Since Flatlanders only conceived of the world in two dimensions, they could not imagine what it meant to live in three dimensions of space. Only by recognizing the significance of the clues to the existence of a higher plane inhabited by sentient creatures could Square understand the reality of the three dimensions of his direct experience.

War is a form of chess played out on many levels. Let us call this the n-dimensional plane of the battlefield the place where Armageddon is being fought. If this is true, then one has to deduce the number of levels of dimensionality that are relevant to the problem of winning the war. 

The Hindus contemplated this and concluded that there were seven states of consciousness. Some religionists believe that the stages of enlightenment through which our consciousness evolves over time play out in succeeding life cycles and take as long as is required for the individual soul to realize that there is nothing worth pursuing in life but enlightenment. Today we may be entering the Age of Aquarius, when the idea suddenly dawns in our collective consciousness that the end of war is possible if we collectively will it to be so.

Buddha gave up asceticism early in his search for enlightenment, shortly after he rejected a life of hedonism that many Brahmins lived in his time and place. He sought to contemplate what he thought of as the first principles of the lessons contained in the Bhagavad Gita. He must have considered that God and Man were One and that if Vishnu created of himself men and women during his time on Earth, then together we could choose to become to be more connected to what some call God and he called the Eternal One.

It is good that we spend time alone contemplating but as Buddha  learned and taught,  for true Enlightenment we must commune with each other. We may have been born in ignorance of our true natures so that we would have free will in a universe where the end is foreseeable from a higher-dimensional vantage point. 

If this is the nature of the Universe, then each of us contains a part of answer to the puzzle of the nature of God and its "plan." In a universe where free will exists our future is not determined for us, though it may be known to God. It is up to us to collectively choose the path that we take together at each of  the various nexus points between an infinity of potential "realities" within the multiverse.

If Buddha was right, then all things that occur in the material universe are inter-related and interdependent, as modern physicists now believe to be the case. Just as joy cannot be perceived by those who have not known pain, the path to the salvation of the our planet cannot be envisioned until we have glimpsed a vision of Hell on Earth. Armageddon is the vision of that Hell that some imagine awaits us.

The true believers in the doctrine of salvation by belief alone think that Jesus is coming to save us in this end of times on a white horse with flaming sword drawn. They believe that all we have to do is believe that Jesus himself is God and they will be saved without moral effort. 

Their complacency threatens to make the warning of Armageddon a self-fulfilling prophecy. If God gave us free will, then it is up to us to choose the path we will take individually and collectively. I choose to challenge this dark vision of the fate of humanity and fight to prevent it with the gathering Army of the Soldiers For Peace internationally.

Square came to envision existence in even higher dimensions, which upset Sphere. Mr. Sphere was the type of guy who was certain that he had experienced Enlightenment. When Sphere left, Square had to ask himself whether what he had seen was real. He applied rigorous logic to what he had seen and to his credit believed the evidence of his senses over the prevailing belief among the residents of Flatland.

In this year of the Earth Christians call 2010 Anno Domini and others measure by more ancient calendars, we can take a lesson from the humble Square and begin to think of war as a game played in at least five dimensions. 

In such a world, a cube appears as we see it from four dimensions only when viewed from certain angles, just as a cube would appear a square to us if viewed end-on from angles which can be predicted from simple geometry. Viewed from other angles in five dimensions, we would see a multidimensional view of the cube that would reveal its true nature in such a universe. It would be seen to be what mathematicians call a hypercube. To consider how to end war through playing the game of life and death in n-dimensional space-time, we  must learn to think outside of the hypercube.

With apologies to Laura Nyro:




I'm not scared of dying
and I don't really care.
If it's peace you find in dying
well then, let the time be near.


If it's peace you find in dying,
well then dying time is near.
Just bundle up my coffin,
'cause it's cold way down there.
I hear that it's cold way down there yeah,
crazy cold, way down there.


And when I die, and when I'm gone
there'll be one child born
in this world
to carry on, to carry on.


Now troubles are many
they’re as deep as a well.
I believe that we’ll make Heaven
‘cause I don’t believe in Hell.

I’ll pray that we’ll bring Heaven
and I don’t believe in Hell.
But I'll never know while livin’,
only my dyin' will tell.
Yes only my dyin' will tell oh yeah,
only my dyin' will tell.


And when I die, and when I'm gone,
there'll be one child born in this world
to carry on, to carry on
yeah, yeah.


Give me my freedom
for as long as I be.
All I ask of livin'
is to have no chains on me. 

All I ask of livin'
is to have no chains on me.
And all I ask of dyin' is to
go natrually, only wanna
go naturally


Here I go!
hey, hey.
Here come the devil
right behind.
Look out children, here he come.
Here he come, heyyy.


Don't wanna go by the devil.
don't wanna go by the demon.
don't wanna go by Satan,
don't wanna die uneasy.
Just let me go
naturally.


And when I die, and when I'm dead,
dead and gone,
there'll be
one child born, in our world
to carry on, to carry on.






Rick Staggenborg, MD
Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER EIGHTY NINE. THE DEATH OF FASCISM: OUR ULTIMATE MISSION

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on May 30, 2010 5:10 PM PDT

This chapter is dedicated to Captain Paul Chappell, author of Waging Peace and Will War Ever End? Paul is a true Soldier For Peace. Like many of us, he has studied the human causes and effects of war in the belief that we can end the senseless slaughter of our youth in the vain pursuit of world domination.

We can end war in our lifetime if we believe it is possible. All we have to do is understand how each of us contributes to a collective reality in which war is considered inevitable, refuse to accept that vision and challenge anyone who does, especially our political leaders. When enough people reject the self-fulfilling prophecy that war is inevitable, it will inevitably become unthinkable.


Thank God, war has become an obsolete concept. We need only convince the American people of the simple truth that it exists only to further the interests of a network of international corporate terrorists. The self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe think that they can impose a fascist New World Order with the support of an unsuspecting American public. We can and must prove them wrong.

There is a dispute among those who understand that war is inherently evil about whether it is ever appropriate to violate the first commandment that we shall not kill. I have complete respect for those who believe that it is better to sacrifice their own life rather than take another, but I myself cannot accept that there are no circumstances under which it could be morally justified to commit war. When the lives of millions of people are at stake and only when force can end the threat of mass enslavement, we must fight. When we willingly give up freedom for a false sense of security, we will neither have nor deserve either.

There have been a number of times in human history when the freedom of individual nations and even the world was at stake. In some cases, only mass conflict could have ended the threat. The results of these wars has been to temporarily gain ground in the battle to finish the American Revolution and spread the blessings of freedom and democracy to every man, woman and child on the planet.

From the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord to the Civil War and the Second World War, we have periodically been forced to resort to violence to preserve the freedom that allows us to learn from our mistakes and strive toward the ideal society that men like Jefferson envisioned we could become.

The Revolutionary War began at a time when there had never been a truly democratic Republic in the world. Our Founders understood that to give in to the tyranny of the corporatists of the 18^th century would be tantamount to accepting enslavement by a few rich and inbred men who believed that they had a God-given right to rule others.

Just as Mohammed chose to fight for the survival of the Islamic movement when given no choice but to fight or submit to men who would enslave or kill him, the colonists decided that they could not in good conscience allow the American dream to die.

They did not create an ideal democratic Republic, since only white male property owners were allowed to vote, but they laid the groundwork for a means to pursue the perfection of democracy. If the American people are good enough to operate a democratic society, they will work toward the goal of a truly free and just society. In such a nation, every person has equal rights under the law and equal opportunity to succeed within a just economic system that the United States government was formed in part to foster.

The Constitution includes two means of altering it in order to create a more perfect Union. Unfortunately, the branch that is supposed to safeguard our liberty by interpreting its meaning has taken the activist stance that they can not only interpret law but create entire new law in the form of legal fictions such the logically flawed doctrine of corporate personhood.

Deliberately ignoring a century of precedent that distinguished between the natural personhood of humans and the artificial persons that are corporations, the activist Supreme Court of Theodore Roosevelt’s day set into motion a chain of events that has led us to a moment in our history where we must choose to fight the enslavement of the entire planet by the international corporations who have been given free rein to purchase our Senators by financing their obscenely expensive campaigns.

In a democracy, the people decide who will lead them. Our friend Jim Hightower jokingly wrote If the Gods had Wanted us to Vote, They Would Have Given us Candidates, but the truth is that there are many good men and women who offer their service to the public but who are not listened to because they do not have the blessing to run of the power elite in the two “major” Parties. The old-boy network uses a seniority system to make sure that anyone put in a position of real power by those Parties has paid his dues, made deals with the right people and can be trusted to do what they are told by the ones who really pick our leaders.

Until we reject the self-serving two-Party system, we cannot expect to enjoy the blessings of democracy. The leadership of the Democratic and Republican Parties are both too deeply into the pockets of their corporate Puppetmasters.  They do not seem to realize that they have a choice to act on behalf of the people even if it conflicts with the desires of the corporatists who pull the strings.

It is unsurprising that in this political climate the average American has given up on electoral politics. Even progressives fighting for their pet causes often fail to understand that faxes and phone calls to Senators are of little use when they are more interested in keeping their jobs than doing them .

Until the average American turns off the corporate media, tunes into the alternative media where the truth is being told and gets involved at every level in an effort to reform politics and restore democracy to America, they are wasting their breath. If we cannot talk to our neighbors for fear that they might be “the enemy,” then there is no hope for the emergence of a truly democratic Republic.

It is time for progressive activists to sit down with Tea Party supporters and try to understand their point of view. Even if each thinks that he already understands the other, they probably don’t if they haven’t tried to talk to each other. The pundits of the Right do not speak for the average thinking conservative any more than the average “progressive” pundit in the corporate media represents the views of the vanguard of the Left. If we must use labels to divide ourselves from others, then let us call ourselves Americans and talk to each other about what that means.

I grew up in a nation where we wanted to be a beacon of freedom to the world. John F. Kennedy epitomized this spirit when he asked us to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” As we march toward the shining city on the mountaintop of which Martin Luther King, Junior spoke so eloquently, we must remember that we are all in this together. Freedom is not free, and we if we will not even pay the price of risking attack by those who might disagree with us, then we dishonor those who have fought and died in the name of democracy.

The veterans who we honor this weekend are men and women who fought when their government told them it was necessary. They have been betrayed time and again. It is our duty to be ever vigilant for the stench of fascism so that this nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal, shall not perish from the Earth. Our grandfathers did not fight and die on foreign beaches so that we could lick Hitler just to let convicted war criminal Prescott Bush and his cronies use the OSS as the nucleus of a shadow government that would place his son and grandson into the office of the Presidency.

The Vietnam war ripped at the fabric of American society in ways from which we have not fully recovered. As we ripped, so shall we sew. Old Glory is tattered but the star spangled banner yet waves. We can mend it and with it the American soul. Let the banner of freedom be flown from every mountain so that it can be seen throughout the world for the symbol that it was meant to be, a simple declaration that all humans are created free and are equal in the eyes of God and the hearts of every free man and woman.

In the immortal words of Jackson Browne:




Oh people, look around you.
The signs are everywhere.
You've left it for somebody other than you
to be the one to care.


You're lost inside your houses.
There's no time to find you now.
Your walls are burning and your towers are turning.
I'm going to leave you here and try to get down to the sea somehow.


The road is filled with homeless souls.
Every woman, child and man
who have no idea where they will go,
but they'll help you if they can.


Now everyone must have some thought
that's going to pull them through somehow.
Well, the fires are raging hotter and hotter
but the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now.


Rock me on the water,
sister will you soothe my fevered brow?
Rock me on the water,
I'll get down to the sea somehow.


Oh people, look among you.
It's there your hope must lie.
There's a sea bird above you
gliding in one place, like Jesus in the sky.


We all must do the best we can
and then hang on to that Gospel plow.
When my life is over I'm going to stand before the Father,
but the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now.


Rock me on the water,
sister will you soothe my fevered brow?
Rock me on the water, maybe I'll remember.
Maybe I'll remember how.


Rock me on the water,
the wind is with me now.
So rock me on the water,
I'll get down to the sea somehow.






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Coos Bay, Oregon

CHAPTER NINETY. REMEMBERING THE FALLEN

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on May 31, 2010 9:15 AM PDT

This chapter is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, who gave his life so that "one nation under God" would remain indivisible in its quest for liberty, justice for all. We the American people ordained a Constitution that was established to form a more perfect union, establish justice, provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare. It did not do so, but it provided the means to establish a government that might. Americans fought a bloody civil war to move themselves a little closer to that ideal. When Lincoln was martyred, the country fell into the hands of war profiteers who took us from the path toward equality and democracy, in part by infecting the American consciousness with the idea that corporations have the rights of humans under the 14th Amendment.

We may not long remember the words that were spoken by our true heroes, but we must not forget the sacrifices of the men and women who died for the freedom of others in wars that would not have been fought had all of us understood and acted upon the simple commandment all religions promote: We are to love our neighbors as we would want to love ourselves. If a just and loving God exists , it must look over all of us and judge us by our souls, not our actions. Such a God would surely look into our hearts and judge us only by whether our actions are determined by concern for liberty and justice for all, or whether selfish considerations allow us to blind ourselves to the consequences of our actions.

It is common for self-professed Christians to piously pray for soldiers who gave their lives "for God and country." This hypocrisy traces its roots to the fact that Third Century Christians, perhaps weary of persecution, accepted the authority of Constantine upon his claim that he had become one of them. He was in fact a politician and warrior, one who oversaw the selection from among religious texts those that supported his divine right to rule them, thus wedding Church and State throughout the unholy Roman Empire. He assembled a book that was incomplete and distorted, deliberate obscuring lessons about personal and collective power that Christ taught and for which he was murdered.

Had they rejected the mixing of government and religion, Christians would have discovered long ago the distortions they have been taught that led them to support religious wars between the Catholic church and the Muslim world  in the form of the Crusades. The clash between self-proclaimed Christians and the Muslim world continues because they have still to understand the meaning of the message of the one they claim saved them, not understanding that what he taught was how to save themselves.

The use of religion for political ends led to fundamentalists being blinded to the fact that they were bound by a common belief in a single God, the eternal One that is Allah, Atman and all of us, bound through what Christians call the Holy Spirit. If we allowed this spirit to flow from the source of all that is good within us and through us, touching and healing those with whom we come into contact, the world could see the end of war. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is love. If God exists, I imagine that is the source of love and that the "Holy Spirit" is its manifestation in the world we know. If so, then love would be the source of all matter and energy in this Universe. Perhaps it is true that all we need is the power of love to overcome those who oppress us with war.

The way to end war is to remember that we are all in this together. War will become unthinkable when we cease to believe that it is inevitable. In this War to End All Wars, the survival of human civilization depends on it being the selfish, self -appointed Masters of the Universe who will fall. We must put an end to their game of Monopoly so that the game of Life might begin.

On Memorial Day I try to remember those who have gone before us by actively working to achieve justice. This is the only path to the end of war. As Lincoln implored us to seek counsel from the Angels of our better natures, I remind myself that I fight not because I hate but because I love. Each year I seek to rededicate myself to the work which those who have died in the belief that they were defending freedom have so nobly given their lives.

Now that we are in a state of seemingly endless war, we must all redouble our efforts to help others understand why this may be our last but best chance to end war itself. Our success will determine whether we have a new birth of freedom and whether government of the People, by the People and for the People may come forth upon the Earth at last.

Through our efforts we have slowed the tide of worldwide fascism. 1984 may not have occurred until 2000, but there is much more to do. An essential first step back to the path to democracy is to pass a Constitutional amendment to end the purchasing of politicians by paying for their elections. This is the first and most important action necessary to strip the corporate Puppetmasters of  the United States government of the tools they need to manipulate the machinery of our government. The power of a corporate elite to determine who we can choose from to represent us in Congress and the White House threatens the gains of the American Revolution and  the prospect of democracy itself. Without real democracy, the world will never know peace.

Tears are wasted on the fallen, who are beyond earthly pain. If we must weep, we should do so for their wives, husbands, parents and most of all for their children. It is our duty to assure that all children will grow and thrive in a world free from the threat of war, poverty, disease and injustice. Soldiers throughout history have willingly laid down their lives in causes that they believed to be larger than their selves. In some cases, their cause is just. In most, they are unwitting victims of a power-mad elite that now seeks to enslave the planet. That is why the citizens of Earth must join hands to oppose them.

Endless war is the ultimate result of Mankind's failure to free itself from the slavery of the belief that some were meant to rule over others, which is the ultimate result of allowing wealth and power to accumulate in the hands of the few. It is so obvious that this would lead to a final effort of the few to enslave the rest of the world that it was predicted over 2,000 years ago.

The Apocalypse is not a promise or a threat. It is a warning of the fate that will befall us if we do not lay aside our petty differences and work together to eliminate the scourges threatening human civilization. Global climate change alone threatens to lead to mass starvation, pandemic, and ever more destructive natural disasters. Add to this the threats of pestilence and famine posed by Monsanto and the lack of health care in the wealthiest nation on the planet, which increases the risk of pandemic, and the case can be made that all four horsemen are already upon us.

We have a choice. We can close our eyes, or we can act. If we do act, we can do so in the knowledge that the survival of human civilization is in our hands or we can hold tight to the illusion that somehow, our individual fates are in our own hands. Survivalists are those who have already given up on society, in the belief that Man is essentially evil. They prepare to defend their food and their families from the fate they assume will befall them because they feel powerless to stop it. It is their conviction that life is inherently a battle between weak and strong individuals that we must reject, because the strength of average individuals comes from acting collectively.

Democracy can only survive if we believe and act according to the principle that all of us have the capacity to act for the common good.  If a People are not good enough to rule themselves, they will inevitably become the slaves of others. The measure of goodness must be the degree of willingness to act in the interests of all rather than their own narrowly defined self-interest. Even those to whom this concept is most foreign have the capacity to change. If they will  not do so willingly, it is up to us to stop them, for they clearly know not what they do. That will require us to put aside our own prejudice, fear, hatred and desire for revenge against those who have wronged us.

They do not serve who only sit and wait for the Kingdom to come to them. Christians, who constitute a substantial majority in the US, have to understand that Jesus already died for our sins. To expect him to come back and save us from our own sloth, despair and intellectual laziness is surely the most perverse way we could possibly recognize his sacrifice. He will not return on a white horse with a flaming sword to slay the non-believer. He won't have to, because we will destroy ourselves if we simply wait to be saved.

The central message of all great religions is that we are all one People, bound by our relationship to each other as much or more than our relationship to a God we cannot see or hear. Those who forget this and create walls between themselves and others are missing the point that every great prophet repeated in various times and places. Mohammed first resorted to violence only when the rich and greedy powers-that-were in Mecca sought to slay him and destroy the nascent Islamic movement meant to unify Peoples around the world. This was the same goal of Christ’s teachings. Muslims believe that Allah sent a messenger to isolated tribes of the Mideast so that they would join together in a spirit of love and peace instead of poisoning each other’s wells. That Christians, Muslims and Jews alike have perverted the message that we are one and must behave accordingly to justify war for wealth and power is the ultimate betrayal of those who devoted their lives to helping us learn how to save ourselves.

Anyone who works to advance the cause of justice is a Soldier For Peace. Those who in doing so believe in the essential goodness of Man and try to treat others in a spirit of love and forbearance will be the ones who lead us to victory.

In the words of Julia Ward Howe:






Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.


Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.


I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.


Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.


I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my condemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on."


Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.


He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.


Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.


In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
while God is marching on.


Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.


He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, he is succor to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Coos Bay, Oregon

CHAPTER NINETY ONE. HOW THE WEST IS ONE

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jun 1, 2010 7:23 AM PDT

This chapter is devoted to Gila Svirsky and Lee Wilson, two women who dare to stand against the tide of public opinion in Israel to give hope to the children who are under grave threat by the actions of their government. I spoke to Gila last night (this morning, to her) to assure her that Soldiers For Peace International stands squarely behind them and are prepared to help in whatever way that we can to bring peace to the region and prevent a conflict on the scale of Armageddon.

The Israeli government lost its collective mind yesterday. Even as we in America paid homage to those of our ranks who have fallen in war, the Israeli Navy was authorized to illegally board a flotilla of humanitarian relief ships in international waters 80 miles from Gaza in clear violation of international law. This resulted in the massacre of at least 10 volunteer peace activists and the wounding of many more in the melee that ensued. The Israeli government claims that the fighting was sparked by Turks aboard one of the ships, but the activists say that the Israelis fired first.

In either event, the fact that the Netanyahu government was aware that there were many members of Parliaments from various nations of Europe aboard demonstrates a flagrant disregard not only for the subjugated Palestinians but for international law and all basic standards of human decency. It is time for all Soldiers For Peace to join in the effort to bring pressure to bear to force the Netanyahu government to dissolve itself in the interest of world peace. They have failed utterly either to act justly with Palestine or to protect their own people from the wrath of the world.

In the American media, the story of the conquest of the West is usually told through the eyes of the European conqueror while the truth of what Native Americans endured at the hands of our nation is rarely heard. Countless movies portray the Army and settlers in various places and times throughout this shameful history as brave defenders of their women and children against “savages” whose beliefs did not include the concept of ownership. Washington, Jefferson and Franklin were all great admirers of the Iroquois system of government, parts of which were incorporated into the Constitution of the United States.

Perhaps the most sympathetic and honest story in cinema of the conquest of the American west was Little Big Man, starring Dustin Hoffman as a white man raised by Native Americans who referred to themselves as “Human Beings.” The story of the systematic slaughter of the Native Americans as seen through his sympathetic eyes is very different from the Orwellian version of this chapter of the American story. 

In the end, it is Custer’s arrogant assumption that he understands the motivation of Hoffman’s warning not to go into the Little Big Horn valley that seals his fate and that of his cavalry division. They paid for their murder of hundreds of innocent Native Americans with their lives, triggering an intensification of the genocide in bloody defiance to God’s wish that we live together in justice and harmony.

As we stand at the threshold of a new dawn in human history, the world collectively faces the choice that the United States government and the people on whose behalf it acted chose poorly in the 19th century. If we are to assure the survival of human civilization into the 22nd century we must act now to save Israel from self-destruction. The way to do this is to act with the knowledge that we are all in this together and must turn the tide of public opinion in the US and Israel toward a vision of world peace and away from the belief that war is inevitable.

The path to peace is not hard to follow. If we put into motion the Battle Plan to Take Back the Americas for the People, North and South America will soon stand shoulder to shoulder with Europe and the peace lovers in Israel and Palestine in demanding a just solution to the plight of the Palestinians. Israel is on trial in the court of public opinion and the jury is more hostile than ever. 

It is our job to be the attorneys for the defense of the Chosen People. Christ and Mohammed taught their followers to love our enemies and our commandment is to love one another as we would want to love ourselves, if we felt worthy. If we believe in democracy, then we must believe that we are good enough to rule ourselves with compassion and mercy.

By the waters,
the waters
Of Babylon.
We lay down and wept,
and wept
for thee Zion.


We remember,
thee remember,
thee remember,
thee Zion.






Rick Staggenborg, MD
Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER NINETY TWO. SOUND THE TRUMPET! THE BATTLE PLAN TO TAKE BACK THE AMERICAS.

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jun 2, 2010 8:57 AM PDT

This chapter is dedicated to Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of the five nations who has inspired generations of Latin Americans to dream of freedom and democracy throughout the Americas. Like Buddha he was born a Brahmin among his people. It was the love and devotion of his Black slave nanny that saved him from falling victim to the dark Angel of his selfish nature and become a true Soldier For peace. Rejecting the privilege to which he was born, he never gave up the ideals he learned from his teachers. He spent his life fighting for all the People of Latin America.

It is a sad commentary on the tendency of men to think only in terms of tribes that exist to divide the wealth of the People among themselves that Bolivar felt compelled to declare himself dictator in order to save the people from the devastation that inevitable befalls a people who submit to rule by an oligarchy of the privileged. Although President Monroe was probably sincere when he declared that the United States would defend its brothers and sisters from European designs of conquest, the US itself soon gave in to the temptations of conquest.

Today we find ourselves faced with the prospect that the CIA, acting on behalf of a cabal of international corporate terrorists, will continue to sow havoc in a Latin America that remains divided by the selfishness of its own leaders. The dictators and strongmen who have ruled many of the nations of this region of the globe seem content to feast upon the bones of the People that they have sold into slavery for a few pieces of silver.

When I dream of a future in which all men and women live in harmony with nature in the fabled return of the Garden, I try to imagine a means by which we might unite the people in order to achieve Mankind’s dream of ending war. I have this vision that suddenly, there is a sonic boom and I look up to see Superman flying above, ready to save us from ourselves. Look! It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane! No, it’s Hugo Chavez! He has come to save us!

Bolivar was trained in the art of war by the very Spanish overlords who he successfully drove from the continent of South America. What a delicious irony it would be if the fascist generals who were trained in the School of the Americas to be the boot-licking lackeys of the CIA and the corporate terrorists for whom they toil would suddenly develop sentience. Perhaps they would realize that their actions are ultimately self-defeating. If they have any love at all for their children, they would turn their weapons on the agents of the CIA and the US military and run them out of Latin America.

If the US were a true representative democracy, we would elect leaders who spoke and acted in the interests of all the people of the United States rather than for the corporate criminals who have paid for their lavish propaganda campaigns that enable them to serve the Puppetmasters of the Senate. The People of the US are inherently good, as are People everywhere. If we were allowed a vote on every decision that an honest group of Senators would carry out, we would surely consider the interests of our neighbors in Latin America when acting on issues of mutual concern.

If only someone of courage and vision would arise in the United States who would stand against the corruption of the government by the selfish men to whom we have handed the tiller of the ship of state. All it would take is one voice rising above the clamor of the angry victims of their own selfishness to be heard proclaiming that the Empire has no clothes. We must provide that collective voice and elect individuals who will make it echo in the chambers of Congress.

The naked ambition of the Empire builders is to lead an international corporate cabal in enslaving the planet for a self-selected elite. If those of us can explain this to those who are hypnotized by the corporate media, it would be apparent to all citizens of this once-proud democracy. Every God-fearing citizen would recoil in horror at what our leaders have done to our brothers and sisters in the name of “peace and freedom” if they could only see behind the curtain and view the reality of what the United States has truly come to represent.

The simple act of introducing a Constitutional amendment on the floor of the Senate that would propose to abolish corporate personhood would have Earth-shattering consequences. If this senator would then challenge each of the other 99 Senators to openly choose between the People and these corporate criminal conspirators, there would still be time to save the planet from the threats of endless war, famine, pandemic and environmental destruction that are the Four Horseman whose hoof beats can be heard beating ever closer from off in the near future.

Good is truly stronger than evil, but the meek will not inherit the Earth until the assertive claim it in their name.  If enough of us believe that it is possible to save ourselves by listening to the Angels of our better nature, we will provide our own salvation. If there comes a day when the final battle between Good and Evil is played out upon the Earthly plane, together we can assure  that it will be a joyous one rather than the terror that the weak of faith fear. 

A restored democracy in the US need only join with the democratic forces being assembled to the South by our latter-day Bolivar and link with Canada, a free Europe and Australia to demand justice for the people of the Mideast, Asia, Russia, Africa and the subcontinent. The day of reckoning appears to be nearer than the faithless can imagine. Let us pray to whatever God  we can imagine that it will give us strength and guidance in the days to come. The battle of Evermore will not be won by faith alone.

In the immortal words of Robert Plant:




The Queen of Light took her bow and then she turned to go.
The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom and walked the night alone.


Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light.
The Dark Lord rides in force tonight, and time will tell us all.
Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, race now to my bow.
Side by side we wait the might, of the darkest of them all.


I hear the horses thunder down in the valley below.
I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow.
The apples of the valley hold the seeds of happiness.
The ground is rich from tender care, which they do not forget, no, no.
Dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light.


The apples turn to brown and black, the tyrant's face is red.
Oh, war is the common cry, pick up your swords and fly.
The sky is filled with good and bad, mortals never know.


Oh well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow.
Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.
The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath.
The drums will shake the castle wall, the Ringwraiths ride in black (ride on).


Sing as you raise your bow, (ride on) shoot straighter than before.
No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold.
Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light.
The magic runes are writ in gold to bring the balance back, bring it back.


At last the sun is shining, the clouds of blue roll by.
With flames from the dragon of darkness, the sunlight blinds his eyes.
Oh, bring it back, bring it back...






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER NINETY THREE. LET’S GET THE PARTY STARTED

 Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jun 6, 2010 4:41 PM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Hugo Chavez, one guy who really knows how to plan a Party. He starts by inviting everyone to come and check out the scene, and then gets them jazzed up by playing them the tune that is music to their ears: In a democracy, everyone has equal rights and the people are taken care of and protected from the international corporate terrorists who would like nothing better than to silence the music.

His Party is so popular that no one else in Venezuela even thinks about throwing their own. As long as he stays in the groove and keeps the music lively, they have no reason to ask for a different D.J.

American politics is almost unique among the self-described democracies in that there are only two major Parties, the Demicans and the Republicrats. Both of these are like professional wrestlers, paid for by the same manager to look mean and as if they are fighting for something more important than making money for their promoters. 

These corporations were created for the purpose of making money, not to be responsible citizens or job machines. That would not be so bad if they at least did create decent jobs that provided health care and other basic necessities like a living wage, but they do not. Virtually the only jobs they create are their own and a huge number of jobs that would be unnecessary in a sane society.

In Europe and elsewhere, the model of government is Parliamentarian. Some are bicameral like the British, and some are unicameral, like the French General Assembly. The assumption in the bicameral system is that there must be an Upper and Lower House, with the Upper House representing the “natural” aristocracy and the “Lower” House the People. In a parliamentary system, there are many Parties that must form coalitions in order to make the concessions necessary to operate a government in a pluralistic society.

The American model of government is one in which it was assumed that the people who came together from the various states to fight the corporate power personified by the East India Company would continue to work together for the greater good as the new nation wrestled with the problems of any new government. 

It was the hope that the citizens of our nation would stay wary of the pitfalls of democratic government and carry out their responsibilities as watchdogs of liberty and masters of the government they had created. The great debate between liberals and conservatives of that day and age was whether the people could be trusted to be the masters of their own fate. The liberal compromise with the conservatives was that the new government must have an Upper Chamber populated by the “natural” aristocracy that was naturally composed of the favored sons of the wealthiest Americans of the time, who had the education and leisure time to run the state governments who picked the Senators representing their respective states.

Washington warned Americans to beware the rise of factionalism, but it was inevitable in such a system. With excessive power granted to small states and to a small group of wealthy men who represented their States rather than the United States once the immediate threat of annihilation by England was past, the die was set for Partisan conflict. 

The dispute was between those who believed that only a strong central government could provide for the common defense and those who feared the concentration of power in a federal government in such a system. The early conservatives were represented by Adams, who successfully prevented efforts by proto-Republicans in the Federalist Party to make war with our French allies following their bloody Revolution but did so at the cost of the first assault on the Constitution in the form of the Alien and Sedition Act.

The Alien and Sedition Act implicitly rejected Jefferson’s assertion that all men are created equal, creating different rights for citizens of other countries within our border and those who were born or naturalized within the boundaries of the granfaloon that we labeled the “United” States. It further created two classes of citizens, those who agreed with the Federalist Party and Adams himself, and those who risked jail to maintain their newly recognized freedom of speech. 

In trying to avoid war, Adams let his fear of the “mob” allow him to justify his trashing of our first rights. A similar Act was later used to imprison former Presidential candidate Eugene Debs, who threatened the power elite of his day with his calls from a national platform for equality and justice for all the people of America. The Espionage Act was of course passed during the nightmare of WWI.

The reward for Debs speaking out against the “War to End All Wars” that was in reality a clash of international corporate Titans was an imprisonment that led to his early death. It is no small irony that this crime was committed by an avowed advocate of world peace who was in fact a racist and who chose to enter a war he won re-election with a promise to stay out of, while Debs was ultimately freed by a Republican corporatist who was generally conceded to be among the worst of all American Presidents before King George IV.

All of this should serve to illustrate the fallacy of trusting one Party or one man with the power to decide our collective fates. If any Party deserves to be heard, it is a Party whose leaders refuse to accept corporate money to reach office. While this is not possible for the Presidency in this day and age, it is demonstrably possible at the level of the Senate and certainly the House of Representatives. All it takes is for the People to understand the importance of this principle and the idea that anyone willing to submit him- or herself to the inevitable corporate attack on any such promising campaign is someone who should be listened to.

It is my hope that the Parties who represent these ideals will soon come together to form a fusion Party representing the People and not the corporations. I humbly submit that my preference would be to call it the American Party. I further hope that other nations will follow this example, one which has already been set by Hugo Chavez, South America’s latter-day Bolivar.

In the words of Kool and the Gang:




Yahoo! This is your celebration.
Yahoo! This is your celebration.
Celebrate good times, come on! Let's celebrate.
Celebrate good times, come on! Let's celebrate.


There's a party goin' on right here.
A celebration to last throughout the years.
So bring your good times and your laughter too.
We gonna celebrate your party with you.


Come on now,
Celebration!
Let's all celebrate and have a good time.
Celebration!
We gonna celebrate and have a good time.


It's time to come together.
It's up to you, what's your pleasure?
Everyone around the world,
come on!


Yahoo! It's a celebration.
Yahoo!
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration.
Celebrate good times, come on!
Let's celebrate.


We're gonna have a good time tonight.
Let's celebrate, it's all right.
We're gonna have a good time tonight.
Let's celebrate, it's all right.


Baby...
We're gonna have a good time tonight. Ce-le-bra-tion.
Let's celebrate, it's all right.
We're gonna have a good time tonight. Ce-le-bra-tion.
Let's celebrate, it's all right.
Yahoo!
Yahoo!


Celebrate good times, come on! Let's celebrate.
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration!


Celebrate good times, come on! Let's celebrate.
Come on and celebrate, good times, tonight. Celebrate good times, come on!
'Cause everything's gonna be all right.
Let's celebrate, celebrate good times. Come on!
Let's celebrate...






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Portland, Oregon

CHAPTER NINETY FIVE. THE WALLS THAT DIVIDE US

This chapter is dedicated to Janet Bates, a canary in the coal mine that the world has become. In her sweet voice, she sings out the pain she feels for the inhumanity she sees in the world today. She refuses to close her eyes to the injustice and serves as a witness to our crimes against ourselves so that we may not deny the suffering our collective inaction allows. She dreams for a better world and inspires us to work for it through her brilliant and beautiful music.

The Buddha taught that all distinctions between ourselves, our fellow travelers in space and time, the physical universe and what lies beyond are arbitrary. It is a basic principle of reality that it can be perceived only a piece at a time because the central processing unit of the individual mind is only capable of focusing on one thing at a time and because the nature of reality is duality. Everything that is possible to imagine is possibly real as long as the reality we create in our minds is logically consistent with physical law. If it is not then we are living in a dream world that can become a nightmare if we are not ever vigilant in looking for the logical inconsistencies in the way that most of us view the world.

We must decide what to believe about its nature according to the principle of duality. Every aspect of the multiverse must be viewed with the recognition that while we may believe that a thing is true, we delude ourselves when we accept belief as established fact. We each possess a model of reality and collectively we determine what that possible world we create. Our scientists, poets, fiction authors, painters, screenplay writers and politicians would have little to do if we did not create new worlds in our minds and in the physical Universe through the free exercise of our imaginations. Imagine if there were no abstract art and our artists painted only what they saw with their eyes rather than what they envisioned in their minds.

The future is not ours to see with perfect clarity. The conceit that we can perceive how the world works and thus predict the future from the study of the past retards science, medicine, art, literature, economics and politics. If we are to ever become masters of our own destiny we must look beyond what we believe to be so and imagine a better world. While we may not individually or collectively be capable of creating a perfect world in our minds or in our world, we must by all means try. It is our moral duty to always endeavor to leave the world into which we are born better than we found it for the sake of our children and generations yet unborn.

The concept of nation is born of the concept of tribalism. Just as we are not as a People composed of races, so is our belief in nationalism an artificial distinction that prevents us from seeing the way to save us from the depredations of selfish individuals who view the game of Life as a game of Monopoly. Thus, we are forced to engage in a game of Risk in which wars are seen as inevitable. This fallacy distracts us from the vital task of saving the world from self-destruction by acting collectively to exercise our power to Stop the Madness that has enveloped human society and threatens the future of our children with endless war and the specters of mass famine, environmental devastation and pandemic.

If God is all of us and we are but the Avatars of our higher beings then we must listen to the Angels of our better nature and act now to stop the self-appointed Masters of the Universe from achieving their goal of worldwide domination and the subjugation of those less fortunate than they in the circumstances of birth. Life may not be currently fair, but it is our right and duty to make it so by cutting off the heads of the Hydra that is the cabal of international terrorist conspirators who are willing to rob our children of their inheritance in order to protect the spoils of the endless war that they have accumulated at the expense of the workers by whose sweat all wealth is created.

If there is a God in Heaven, the world will find a way to tear down the walls between nations that divide brother from brother and sister from sister. This is our right and duty to do so the children of God may live in peace and harmony for all eternity. Soon the collective consciousness of humans will evolve into one in which war is seen not as inevitable but unthinkable. Israel can by itself save us from Armageddon by seeing this in time to prevent the war that was foreseen two millennia ago. Those who listened to the Prophets who predicted that the End of Days would inevitably come if we did not come to collectively realize that the family of Man must resolve its differences if we are to survive as a species can save us from ourselves if they become Evangelists for the word of the One God who may still be speaking to those prepared to listen.

We cry out to the children of Yahweh to listen to the voice of the One God who weeps for them in their blind anger. Mr. Netanyahu, tear down that wall! The people of America can compel Israel to respond simply by cutting off the billions that sustain its war machine. Israel is sealing its fate and perhaps that of Mankind by its blind fear of change. In the mind of the average Israeli, safety is only possible by cruelly imposing the will of their nation on their brothers and sisters in Palestine. 

The collective reality of the lost tribes of Israel must become one in which there are no walls between us. Their immediate family is composed of all of the Semitic Peoples. To continue to poison the wells of their neighbors can only lead to their reluctant punishment by the loving God in whom they once trusted to protect them in the desert. God’s Chosen People have the moral responsibility to honor father Abraham by reuniting his family and sharing the milk and honey God granted them with the ones who once shared their lands freely with their Jewish and Christian neighbors as Mohammed taught them that Allah commanded.

It is also the moral duty of the United States to tear down the wall by which it has futilely attempted to staunch the flow of Mexico’s downtrodden masses who want only to feed their starving families. Clinton erred in giving away our right to determine our own economic fate to the one world government that the international corporate criminals who run the World Trade Organization want to impose on us. The People of the United States err in trying to protect their accumulated wealth at the expense of our neighbors to the South.

The People of the United States created the problems that beset them by allowing and encouraging our leaders to use the cheap labor that Mexico provided to keep the price of fruits and vegetables affordable for the workers in America whose jobs they sacrificed in the process. It is time that the United States own up to the mistakes of its chosen leaders and help both its struggling middle class and the poor and their suffering neighbors in Latin America. They must demand that Congress abrogate the treaties of NAFTA and CAFTA and withdraw from the WTO. We will not be able to bear the cost of bread if we do not, just as the People of Mexico can no longer afford the corn that they now struggle to grow for the benefit of the company store that is Archer Daniels Midland and the other selfish beneficiaries of the Senates largesse of the money it extorts from the taxpayer lavished upon them through agricultural subsidies intended to protect the small farmers of America.

America can put food on the tables of families in the United States and Latin America if it chooses. If it is truly a nation that respects the Christian values upon which the religious Right claims it was founded, it will live up to its moral responsibility to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless and provide comfort to those afflicted by the spiritual disease of greed that it has caused its own people to become infected. When the Peoples of all the Americas unite in the cause of justice they can and will share the gift of democracy with the Peoples of the planet we all inhabit. All the world can be free and wealthy if the People of the United States collectively will it to be so. The remnants of democracy survive in the nation whose Constitution was written by men who held the conviction that our Creator endowed all of the inhabitants of the Earth with the inalienable rights to liberty, equality and equal justice for all.

If all lovers of peace, democracy and freedom unite, there is time to prevent Armageddon and restore ourselves to the Garden of Eden we left when the first tribes formed in the aftermath of the original sin that was the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain. We willingly left a place where fruit hung in the trees of the Garden for anyone to freely take and the lion lay down with the lamb in perfect safety. We can return if we forgive our neighbors for their trespasses against us and together work to rebuild the world that we have nearly allowed to be destroyed. God is still speaking and we must now listen. If everything happens for a purpose we must strive to understand the meaning of the gushing of oil into the sea on which America depends for much of its fish. Several of the Apostles drew their living from the sea and Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that if we share there is plenty for all.

Just as Jesus taught us to share, Mohammed taught that it was the will of Allah that we share with our brothers the Manna that it provided for our sustenance. Buddha taught us that we are all part of the Eternal One that is the Universe we collectively inhabit. Krishna taught us that Vishnu wanted us to destroy the caste system that we created to preserve the wealth and privilege of the Brahmin. Vishnu himself taught us that we are all part of the reality that the dance of Shiva represents. The creation and destruction of Universes will cease only when we recognize that peace can come eternally if we recognize our interdependence and work together for the Salvation of Mankind.

God is still speaking. Are we listening?

In the words of Janet Bates:






I built my house my castle,
the finest in the land
with riches I have taken
but the walls came tumbling down.


The wall came tumbling down my friend,
the walls came tumbling down.
Because no love there could be found,
the walls came tumbling down.


I built my house my fortress,
with stone walls all around.
I built my house with bricks and stones,
but the walls came tumbling down.


The wall came tumbling down my friend,
the walls came tumbling down.
Because no love there could be found,
the walls came tumbling down.


I built the finest temple.
People came from miles around
to justify the greed and hate,
but the walls came tumbling down.


The wall came tumbling down my friend,
the walls came tumbling down.
Because no love there could be found,
the walls came tumbling down.


I built out on an island,
with oceans all around.
I thought I would be safe there
but the walls came tumbling down.


The wall came tumbling down my friend,
the walls came tumbling down.
Because no love there could be found,
the walls came tumbling down.


I built my house with care and love and
gardens all around
There is no use for walls I said,
so the walls came tumbling down.


The wall came tumbling down my friend,
the walls came tumbling down.
Because no love there could be found,
the walls came tumbling down.


A wall can keep a stranger out.
A wall can keep you in.
Forever you'll be strangers
till the walls come tumbling down.






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Portland, Oregon