tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17697279449155119362024-03-15T18:12:43.991-07:00LightwaveseekerMusings on Ultimate Reality, ethics, religion, social history, literature, media, and artDaniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.comBlogger877125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-907165431969377462024-03-07T10:30:00.000-08:002024-03-07T10:31:54.563-08:00GUEST post from Tent of Nations, a Palestinian family's seeking, despite Israeli attacks, to live Jesus' moral TruthFROM TENT OF NATIONS WEBSITE--<br>
https://tentofnations.com/about-us/
<br>
The picture this morning shows "5 illegal Israeli Jewish settlements” who have confiscated more Palestinian land:-( that immorally and unjustly surround<br>
a Christian Palestinian family’s land that has been in their family for over 100 years, since Ottoman times!<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnoUioyiz3qTmGvS27Oh0-4h2gEGTjB3hTAy8pYKjw8E4jZO27Wq46P67SCDTfrd3Hq8t27YUtkIn_5psUVJjGK1RppJjt6WemzaDtPxLfexu8jojb1BSjjQGRP_IM8MDWZc9yoNAlpBaMot7hY_F0YTbf5tsJ6fCmFaMmSSq8qm7KdCGaBev_OIF6jk/s824/ToN-Webseite-11-neu.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="824" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnoUioyiz3qTmGvS27Oh0-4h2gEGTjB3hTAy8pYKjw8E4jZO27Wq46P67SCDTfrd3Hq8t27YUtkIn_5psUVJjGK1RppJjt6WemzaDtPxLfexu8jojb1BSjjQGRP_IM8MDWZc9yoNAlpBaMot7hY_F0YTbf5tsJ6fCmFaMmSSq8qm7KdCGaBev_OIF6jk/s320/ToN-Webseite-11-neu.jpg"/></a></div>
Here's part of an accounting of how the Israeli government’s oppression, persecution, confiscation, destruction of Palestinian orchards, etc. make it so difficult for Palestinians such as this Palestinian family near Bethlehem:-(<br>
<br>
YET this Palestinian family seeks to love all people including their Jewish enemies with Jesus’ love.<br>
<br>
FROM "History of the ToN"<br>
“More than 100 years ago, many family members have worked at the ToN during the day and slept in caves at night. Olives, grapes, almonds, fruit trees, wheat and other crops are grown on the land.<br>
<br>
"The farm (Daher’s Vineyard) was purchased more than one 100 years ago...At that time, the country was still under the Ottoman rule. During the British Mandate in Palestine from 1918 to 1948, the property was registered with the British in 1924 and 1925 under Bishara Daher Nassar’s name.<br>
<br>
"The Arab Israeli war in 1948-49 (Arabic: Nakba = catastrophe), left more than 750,000 Arab Palestinians without a home. Daher’s son Bishara Nassar began a ministry in the Bethlehem area among the Palestinian Christian refugees by offering Bible Study and prayer sessions to empower them and to encourage them...<br>
<br>
More Palestinian land "was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, and in the 1970s Israel started building Settlements...
Bishara's "ToN is surrounded by 5 illegal Israeli Jewish settlements (Gush Etzion settlement bloc) that are growing to become cities. In 2018, a Torah school, also expanding rapidly, was built right next to the ToN.<br>
<br>
--<br>
"In 1991, Israeli authorities declared the Nassar family farm and surrounding area as" Israeli state land.
Despite the facts that the " Nassar family owns all the original land registrations under the name of Bishara Nassar from 1924 and 1925 and has farmed the land throughout Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli rule, which clearly proves that the Israeli government has no right to declare it as state land.<br>
<br>
"Since then, the Nassar family has defended their land from demolition of farm buildings, water cisterns, tents, and outright expropriation in front of the Israeli Military Court and Supreme Courts.<br>
--<br>
More than 0.7 million Jewish settlers already have stolen and occupied Palestinian lands!<br>
--<br>
"Since then, the process has been repeatedly delayed by Israel, forcing the Nassars to restart the process several times. In 2019, the Nassars finally received confirmation that their application was complete...<br>
<br>
"Despite repeated requests, the Nassars continue to wait to hear the results of this meeting. Between February and August 2021, nothing was heard from the Civil Administration, despite several requests from their attorney.<br>
--<br>
"As in many other cases in the past, the hearing was postponed and rescheduled for January 16, 2022.<br>
--<br>
"This date was again postponed to October 27, 2022, postponed to November 21, 2022 and then postponed again to January 16, 2023.
"..the ToN continued to be the target of numerous attacks. On May 21, 2021, unknown persons set fire on the Nassar’s land and destroyed over 1000 trees, including hundreds of olive trees. On June 9, 2021, Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers entered their private property and cut down approximately 50 olive trees.<br>
<br>
"On January 28, 2022, two of the Nassar’s brothers were attacked and seriously injured on the ToN by masked men. The pace of settlement expansion, the constant concern for the family’s physical safety, the construction of settler-only roads, and roadblocks and checkpoints have added to the isolation of the ToN and the sense of imminent threat.<br>
<br>
"Countless times so far, the ToN has been attacked, thousands of trees have been destroyed, and damages of over €150,000 have been caused. The Nassar family has been threatened with their lives several times.<br>
<br>
Yet this Christian Palestinian family despite "the continuous destructions and the attacks on their lives" attempts to live peaceful nonviolent way based on their Christian values and trusting in God’s justice."<br>
<br>
Please relay this story to your Congress leaders and all others that you know so that the Palestinian side of the current horrific tragedy in Palestine-Israel gets heard!<br>
<br>
In the LIGHT,
<br>
Daniel Wilcox
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-49057663685861677992024-03-03T10:35:00.000-08:002024-03-03T10:35:49.096-08:00To us an Infant is GIFTED--No to "abortion on demand"What is a baby?<br>
<br>
Don't ask many modern thinkers. According to them there are "abortion rights"! And the new human life in its mother's womb is a "parasite" only unwanted "tissue"!<br>
<br>
Nothing could be further from the moral truth.<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uKBDX462mRz3kbad47L9sNGTQo39v5hWo2QZez4GN3VdwQsz6Q0pLzDLWQ41MMZxVTNYSzqAZLxIWBrHjlObOEQgLdGNPqUNZl0WIuO3iD4u0dM2s0l4W6KG4xTheKknhPJyZUtRMra33laY9mFYcjE8mCxiIJnMtqTXhLHPYS7GJrH79ZcroPUB-9s/s320/6%20month%20old.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uKBDX462mRz3kbad47L9sNGTQo39v5hWo2QZez4GN3VdwQsz6Q0pLzDLWQ41MMZxVTNYSzqAZLxIWBrHjlObOEQgLdGNPqUNZl0WIuO3iD4u0dM2s0l4W6KG4xTheKknhPJyZUtRMra33laY9mFYcjE8mCxiIJnMtqTXhLHPYS7GJrH79ZcroPUB-9s/s320/6%20month%20old.jpg"/></a></div>
<br>
That doesn't mean that state governments or the federal government should make intolerant, oppressive rules like some rightwing politicians have been doing lately, ones that require a woman or girl who has been raped or molested to bring the rapist's infant to birth, etc.<br>
<br>
There are also tragic biological accidents where preborn infants in the womb are missing their brain or so severely malformed that they will die shortly after birth or never be able to function.<br>
<br>
I'm not speaking to any of those severe pregnancy tragedies.<br>
<br>
And, in all cases of pregnancy, the mother (in consultation with her husband and doctor) IS the ONLY one who decides!
<br>
NOT strangers or the government.<br>
<br>
The key point of this article is that generally conception, growth in the mother's womb, and birth are the wondrous creation of new human life!<br>
<br>
Also, don't ask theologians or become entangled in illusions and delusions, long-winded metaphysical splits/spit;-) of religious thinking.<br>
<br>
What if we didn't focus on abstract philosophical doctrine, but viewed each baby as a true gift.<br>
<br>
Instead, most traditional churches claim the doctrine of Original Sin-- that all babies are born inherently guilty sinners. In contrast, New Thought religion declares all babies are born divine. What a philosophical split!<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzDgj0JprT9Yxc0vyvasI95435sXM-iYfRnd6iNTF6iTyxJprvs-j-SL4kLY3IyAJaBl1P1-jK2llNWX_1gF-ORdHOxr_yR1jvseTU4dIHJ4-tx3Xgy0ji-rn-zYhHRcBdILKUfaMKoLTFqS4NA_qvXSp_KGrLDlX1CVmG8VYoSOePhAZWj6ksff3n72g/s320/GUILTYLITTLECHILDREN.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzDgj0JprT9Yxc0vyvasI95435sXM-iYfRnd6iNTF6iTyxJprvs-j-SL4kLY3IyAJaBl1P1-jK2llNWX_1gF-ORdHOxr_yR1jvseTU4dIHJ4-tx3Xgy0ji-rn-zYhHRcBdILKUfaMKoLTFqS4NA_qvXSp_KGrLDlX1CVmG8VYoSOePhAZWj6ksff3n72g/s320/GUILTYLITTLECHILDREN.jpg"/></a></div>
What does either doctrinal extreme have to do with the real living being who is birthed from her mother?<br>
the creation of her and her husband's love-making?<br>
<br>
Human beings at birth are neither divine nor depraved. A baby is a natural offspring of a primate species. But uniquely (probably unlike any other species of life, even dolphins and chimps) a human being has the potential to grow spiritually--to relate to her Creator, and to create, bring newness and improvements into existence since she has been created in the image of God.<br>
<br>
What a wonder a baby is! I recently held my first grandchild. Experientially, the moment was blessed. How perfect her tiny living body. What a true gift from the Divine.<br>
<br>
But a little later, when she got hungry, wow, what lungs and what a puckered face she suddenly developed!<br>
<br>
I must admit, I don't think something called a "soul" enters a baby at conception, or for that matter anytime later.<br>
At conception a new life begins with amazing characteristics from the genes of her/his ancestors. At conception, the life appears to have no awareness. But brain wave activity begins early in the womb.<br>
<br>
Even after birth, however, a baby is sort of an eating and pooping blob;-) She has awareness, but probably not much except she wants to be fed, and fed now!<br>
<br>
Then gradually her awareness grows month after month. Finally she becomes self-conscious. Then later her sense of conscience develops--what is morally good, true, and just.<br>
<br>
Finally, an awareness of her finiteness and the mystery of existence comes into her consciousness.<br>
<br>
No, a baby doesn’t come into the world a walking, talking, mentally active philosopher/theologian/moralist/saint.<br>
<br>
On the contrary she is a living breathing consciousness at the most simple level.<br>
<br>
As she grows in the next 6 to 7 years in her consciousness, self-awareness, and her moral conscience develops with a sense of ought, then she will become a moral and spiritual individual who acts. Sometimes she will fail, sometimes "miss the mark."<br>
<br>
But even then she is still an innocent child struggling to function and to understand and to fulfill needs and desires and hopes, and the demands of the big people in her life.<br>
<br>
Is not this the stage that Jesus referred to when he said those who enter the Kingdom of God must do so as a little child? And where he said to people to let little children come to him for of such is the Kingdom?<br>
<br>
And this was my own personal experience—when so young. I don’t remember being a sinful-driven child that fundamentalist Christians claim all babies and small children are.<br>
<br>
Instead, as far back as I can remember, I had very deep desires to do good, to be good, to know God and to love the Light. And I had a lot of childlike wonder questions about God, life, other...always asking why about everything:-)
<br>
Of course the slither of wrong thought, wrong action, wrong living does come to us all, but not at conception or birth!<br>
<br>
A child's awareness will grow if she is introduced to God and is shown her responsibility to share, to think of others and their needs, even though she still doesn’t voluntarily give outwardly if it is to her own privation.<br>
<br>
Finally, the her moral consciousness kicks in mid-childhood. At each given moment, there will be a tussle between her babyhood past (all spontaneous need and desire) and her adulthood future (potentially all share, give, and bliss).<br>
<br>
At that moment by moment juncture—that possibility moment--she must make continual moral, spiritual decisions. She is finite and so will make mistakes and fail. She is learning in her emotions, her mind, her conscience, and her body as she moves through time. Her choices are a much more complicated version of the way she learned to walk and to talk three years earlier--by trial and error.<br>
<br>
But now a new possibility rears its ugly or saintly head. If she doesn’t continue to develop holistically, widening outwardly her care, her helpfulness, her compassion, then she slows, stalls, or even regresses backward to a total need/want level.<br>
However, since she isn’t an infant but has the outer body and will and growing mental ability of a 6 or 7 year old, her regression hurts herself and other persons.<br>
<br>
To try and fulfill life as a growing child, by returning to the barely conscious self-focused life of an infant actually distorts life and will bring harm to others to varying degrees.<br>
<br>
Continued growing, in contrast, takes her through new stages of human development and new challenges. Each developmental advance brings new ethical and spiritual choices—either good or bad, advancing or regressing or a combination of both.<br>
<br>
As anyone knows, when climbing a mountain, the higher one goes the more dangerous the climb becomes—not because the action of climbing mountains is evil, or because individuals who climb mountains are depraved sinful beings, but because the very nature of going "higher" also offers more options of choosing. Some of the ways are wrong, even could cause one to plummet to the bottom. Some of the ways are right, and lead toward the peak.<br>
<br>
If a baby cries when she hungry that doesn’t show she is sinning.<br>
<br>
On the contrary that is how an infant acts to get the attention she needs to survive. If a 4-year-old child throws a tantrum and takes her little brother’s bottle because she thinks she isn’t getting enough attention from her parents, while her action is wrong and needs to be corrected, she shouldn't be told she is a sinner. She hasn’t developed enough in her conscious awareness and ethical conscience to make altruistic decisions.<br>
<br>
However, if at 8, she hides her little brother’s medicine, because she wants all the attention instead, this is morally wrong because by then her mental, moral conscience has developed enough to know that her action isn't the right way to get attention. And, besides, by this point she should be widening her compassion and care for others out beyond her own needs and desires.<br>
<br>
If at 18, she steals her younger sister’s boyfriend to build up her own ego, deep wrong has occurred. By 22 if she joins with many of her countrymen and demonizes others and distant people in another country and lies, steals, and joins in the slaughter of those enemies, we do have actions of evil,<br>
just as if in contrast,<br>
she joins an outreach organization such as Habitat for Humanity or World Vision and sacrifices her time, talent, and money and inspires her younger sister to do so as well, we have actions of goodness.<br>
<br>
Then the two sisters think of a way to get other people in their neighborhood, school, and city to get involved. One such inspired girl, about 13 years of age, raised thousands of dollars for starving, hurting people in a far off country.<br>
<br>
See how the moral growth of human beings happens. A human being is in process from simple surviving to becoming the acting being of moral truth.<br>
<br>
Reminds me of several of Jesus’ moral parables...<br>
<br>
Go and do thou likewise...please stop talking about babies being unwanted "parasites" or "depraved sinners..."<br>
<br>
“Holy infant so tender and mild*,” except when she cries at 3 a.m. and the parents haven’t slept through the night for weeks;-)<br>
<br>
In the LIGHT,<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-36851393539665587152024-02-20T10:10:00.000-08:002024-02-22T07:42:34.434-08:00when hopes and goals and...fail, how to LIVEI have never been satisfied with the usual, the superficial, even the partial good, not even brief moments of the best, but have always yearned for the unseen deep, the transcendent--<br>
have been an idealist, an individual who always seeks beyond this current tragic mess
to the wondrous,<br>
the sublime,<br>
the essential--<br>
to God,<br>
True Ultimate Reality.<br>
<br>
And as I share below, only a few wondrous times, I have been overwhelmed me with its Presence far beyond my wildest hopes, ideals and dreams.<br>
<br>
HOWEVER,<br>
as already said,<br>
so much of my life has been lived and continually needs to be lived in<br>
(and I suppose most other people's lives)
the humdrum,<br>
the routine,<br>
the repetitious,<br>
the mediocre,<br>
the dull,<br>
the boring --yes, the drudgery and sludge of the average day.<br>
<br>
And now after a severe stroke of bad luck in the spine, I am mostly confined to the lonely rooms of our house, often not even capable of walker-hobbling out to the mail box.<br>
Even on a day or so a week, when I am doing a bit better, and walker-out, seldom are there any neighbors out and<br> about.<br>
Not since COVID does anyone hang out talking, while their kids bike and play around the cul-de-sac, etc.<br>
Yet I long for, like the Jewish Psalmist says, deeply thirst for the wondrous and the true and the good and the<br> caring.<br>
<br>
Recently, I came across an insight that helped me in my daily quandary; changed my thoughts of communion with the Transcendent, since so often I am disappointed with how shallow, even dry, my experiences seem on any given day or night, especially on days taken up with the hectic or the tragic.<br>
<br>
When the spiritual insight reached me in the deepest place, the vital truth came anew--<br>
friendship with the Light is MORAL ACTION!<br>
not primarily feeling<br>
or experience.<br>
(And not 'creedal' beliefs<br>
like most humans think).<br>
<br>
WHAT COUNTS ISN'T memory, desire, hope--BUT DOING in each moment the morally right act.<br>
<br>
Since I am an artist though through and through (one huge nerve ending;-),<br>
this focus is difficult.<br>
I want to feel, feel, feel...<br>
Even a speculative-sci-fi novel by me was titled, The Feeling of the Earth.<br>
<br>
And I do hope to experience God again and again, but for now I know more deeply what most counts is TO ACT<br>
for the ideal,<br>
for the true,<br>
for the transcendent.<br>
<br>
That's Truth come down.<br>
<br>
<br>
HOPEFULLY, we will sometimes also experience the Infinite-Transcendent to an overwhelming degree--<br>
<br>
one incredible time I did--<br>
<br>
Outside the Limit<br>
<br>
Working the thursday graveyard shift<br>
At 7-11, I stock cold shelves of 'cours'<br>
Then write a college essay on dreiser<br>
Of how all is thin surface, all negation;<br>
<br>
But alert in the night, I muse in the stillness<br>
While beyond the glass, the parking lot lies<br>
Vacant, lit by the neon signs and street lights--<br>
When so unexpected my mind transports.<br>
<br>
I rise outside of self, see far beyondness,<br>
Perceive myself sitting between the rows,<br>
Observe the little ego in the skin and skull<br>
My bodied self sitting with the staid cans and jars.<br>
<br>
But now awash drowned in awe, in the Personal<br>
Luminousness aware beyond words vivid bliss<br>
Blessed all encompassing exalting surpassing<br>
Transcendent Deep Presence.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal<br>
<br>
<br>
May you find the LIGHT in your daily giving actions and at least once in an overwhelming Sublime experience.<br>
<br>
In the Light,<br>
<br>
Dan<br>
<br>
<br>Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-78310503114413820702024-02-17T09:56:00.000-08:002024-02-17T10:12:40.784-08:00"This Land is Mine" claim Russians, Ukrainians, Muslims, Jews...ETC. Endlessly.....<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/50531435?h=299119c12b" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/50531435">This Land Is Mine</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user2983855">Nina Paley</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
--
From vimeo--
<a href="https://vimeo.com/50531435">https://vimeo.com/50531435</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-32171041211070634132024-02-15T08:57:00.000-08:002024-02-15T10:06:04.568-08:00Unusual Place where Millions of Characters from Literature Exist and InteractSomewhere, characters from countless selections of literature and media exist and interact.<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0M_y0SeiRr6xYU-SaMiPRXcfMZ19wujPyeyYJrDxlrkV6UTbPXFswRjwy9dhZfRJ47mm_mohRJBq737OI6eVp-txNCUDkjwk25oq-kEjMbw-eGVNisRjRGh_t_qjk7n_lROuvLQMIIXhgNDoOBWSYQwCiEnnhDaaLM4HlhI7powpsyT58rcuGCp9dMc/s343/Cruciblecover.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN0M_y0SeiRr6xYU-SaMiPRXcfMZ19wujPyeyYJrDxlrkV6UTbPXFswRjwy9dhZfRJ47mm_mohRJBq737OI6eVp-txNCUDkjwk25oq-kEjMbw-eGVNisRjRGh_t_qjk7n_lROuvLQMIIXhgNDoOBWSYQwCiEnnhDaaLM4HlhI7powpsyT58rcuGCp9dMc/s320/Cruciblecover.jpg"/></a></div>
Making educated guesses based upon your chosen individuals from novels, movies, etc., take us on a mystery tour of their conversations, actions, and views.<br>
<br>
To write your adventure, assume your main character's 1st-person point-of-view, though any other point-of-view would also be fine. (Mention each title in brackets or parentheses).<br>
<br>
Place the interacting characters in a particular novel or real-life setting.<br>
<br>
Another fascinating possibility is to have them talk and interact with actual famous individuals of human history or the present.<br>
<br>
For instance, Huck Finn (Mark Twain's novel) and Wolf Larsen (Jack London's The Sea Wolf) meet John Proctor (the real individual of history or the fictional character in Arthur Miller's The Crucible) one of the falsely accused at the Salem Witchcraft Trials.<br>
<br>
Playing around with time and space is a possible option, too.<br>
<br>
What if Europeans didn't discover the Americas?!<br>
<br>
Or what happens if a current American political leader shows up in 1859 and meets Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara (Margaret Mitchel's Gone with the Wind)?<br>
<br>
The possibilities in this imaginative literary lounge are limitless:-)<br>
<br>
<br>
In the Light,<br>
<br>
-Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-71756938670664352432024-01-31T09:37:00.000-08:002024-02-02T09:37:05.542-08:00Friend Brinton’s insightful study of the Quaker Movement in the last 300 years, how the Society has 4 different emphasesCurrently, in the U.S. and many other nations (and in various ideological or religious movements in history), most humans seem given to extremes and fragmentation.<br>
This leaves us often divisive, unbalanced, and distorted in our quest for truth.<br>
<br>
As Howard H. Brinton insightfully explains in <i>Friends for 300 Years</i> this divisiveness and fragmentation even happens to good renewal movements such as the Friends, who came into being for the very purpose of regaining wholistic truth and avoiding all destructive tendencies of human history.<br>
<br>
"Through the three centuries of Quaker history the four primary elements present in all religion have at different times exerted their influence in varying degrees."<br>
-Brinton
<br>
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<br>
Mystic Inner Life<br>
Evangel Outreach<br>
Social Justice<br>
Rationalism<br>
<br>
From 1650 to about 1750, mysticism and evangel outreach were in balance in the group as a whole though some individuals tended to stress one or the other.<br>
<br>
But then mysticism and evangelicalism became a major conflict, each pressing the other to bad extremes among Quakers as a whole.<br>
<br>
By the 1800’s, Quietism, (an excessive focus on mysticism—the inner life) became dominant, and the early expressive evangel preaching and sharing of truth with those outside of the society greatly receded.<br>
<br>
Instead, the Friends became “a peculiar society” which besides their “inner life” focused on exclusive
boundaries and rigid rules.<br>
Exactly the Opposite of the Early Friends who emphasized the CENTER, not exclusion and conformity to outward rules and dress.<br>
<br>
During the latter half of the 20th century and the 1st 23 years of the 21st, rationalism and social justice took over and have assumed greater prominence,<br>
(except for a few fundamentalist Friends who have abandoned the key points of the Society and, instead, inserted-asserted Reformed theology, the exact opposite of ALL that Quakerism means)!<br>
<br>
Brinton:<br>
"The best type of religion is one in which the mystical, the evangelical, the rational and the social are so related that each exercises a restraint on the others. Too exclusive an emphasis on mysticism results in a religion which is individualistic, subjective and vague."<br>
<br>
Too dominant an evangelicalism results in religion which is authoritarian, creedal and external; too great an emphasis on rationalism results in a cold, intellectual religion which appeals only to the few.<br>
<br>
Too engrossing a devotion to the social justice results in a religion which, in improving the outer environment, ignores serious defects of the inner life which cause the outer disorders.<br>
<br>
Brinton also goes on to warn against "vitalism which worships the life-force in its biological sense" which has very little in common with the central message of the Early Friends.<br>
<br>
My response to Brinton's excellent analysis: About the only point where I disagree with Brinton is when he says the 4 qualities "each exercise a restraint on the others."<br>
<br>
No--and that sounds too negative--it is rather that when Most bathed in the Light, the 4 parts of true transcendental reality relate/commune, giving a redeeming uplifting of each other and are the Seed of true moral and spiritual becoming.<br>
<br>
Read <i>Friends for 300 Years</i> (or the updated version, <i>Friends for 350 Years</i>)
and be not only intellectually enlightened, but raised up in the LIGHT!
<br>
Friend on the edge, Daniel<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-28738910011100155982024-01-30T16:53:00.000-08:002024-01-30T17:03:26.226-08:00AWAKE to SEEKAwake to Seek<br>
<br>
<br>
Wake<br>
Up and suit yourself,<br>
<br>
Into the floundering pattern-mudded<br>
Consciousness of this our finite skin---<br>
<br>
Into a being 'berthed' bemused, beseemed morning<br>
So like the proverbial hog, boar or sow of the round ring<br>
<br>
Who as life's suitors get caught by our snouted 'knows;'<br>
Beshrewed, besotted, bemired so we instinctively grunt,<br>
<br>
Tempted by our sensual, careening awareness<br>
Or our dutiful grindstoned routine,<br>
<br>
We press our life's suit 'til evening<br>
Or wallow down<br>
<br>
To our suited
Wake.<br>
<br>
<br>
1st pub. in Moria Poetry<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
in the time of Darkness<br>
<br>
to commune with the Transcendently Real<br>
in the midst of our utter loss<br>
<br>
in the darkened night of alone<br>
to contemplate despite a soon demise,<br>
<br>
to live in the Infinite's silence<br>
deafens our wayward heart and leaves<br>
<br>
our confused mind bereft;<br>
the Divine answers no pleas<br>
<br>
our anguished request left--
<br>
Selah<br>
<br>
to hope against midnight's despair<br>
to trust in all that is blessedly Fair,<br>
<br>
so Beautiful, Right, Good and Just<br>
despite our world history of horror<br>
<br>
for naught, and absurd;<br>
we seek<br>
<br>
a slight glimmer<br>
of the billion-lighted<br>
<br>
meaning shimmering briefly<br>
in our finite reason and creative awareness,<br>
<br>
before the cosmos spun into place,<br>
eternally ever always<br>
<br>
Ultimate<br>
Becoming.<br>
<br>
Selah<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
In the Light,<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-65616442920557544662024-01-24T12:28:00.000-08:002024-01-24T20:16:15.012-08:00My Rating of the BEST MOVIES and TV SHOWS Ones worth watching at least 2-3 times; and studying a few even more...<br>
<br>
1. The Stand Original Miniseries<br>
(not the recent inferior, at times hokey, one)<br>
<br>
2. North and South Miniseries<br>
<br>
3. Breaking Bad<br>
(best dramatic tragedy TV series ever)<br>
<br>
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<br>
(endlessly thematically deep movie though it has<br>
a few unnecessary bad scenes)<br>
<br>
5. On the Waterfront<br>
<br>
6. Star Wars-Empire Strikes Back duo<br>
<br>
7. Dr. Zhivago<br>
<br>
8. Original Star Trek, (some amazing episodes) and Star Trek:NG (a few powerful episodes)<br>
<br>
8. Casablanca<br>
(didn't get tired of this amazing classic,<br>
until I had re-watched, studied the film 11 times!)<br>
<br>
9. Sommersby<br>
(very creative script and great acting; at times overly idealistic take on post-Civil War<br>
South that has deeply moral themes<br>
<br>
10. States of Grace<br>
(deeply spiritual drama, powerful except for very long excessively slow ending)<br>
<br>
11. A Stranger Among Us<br>
(powerful moral story of devout Jewish view of reality versus secular police officers’ view)<br>
<br>
12. Time Cop <br>
(great futuristic time travel movie with unexpected plot twists)<br>
<br>
13. The Sixth Day<br>
<br>
14. Total Recall <br>
(despite gratuitous scenes and excessive lethal violence)<br>
<br>
15. Terminator 2<br>
(despite intense over-done violent attack by mother of hero)<br>
<br>
16. Sleepy Hollow<br>
(intriguing adaption of the classic American literature story<br>
by Washington Irving)<br>
<br>
17. Savior<br>
(powerful moral story of modern war in former Yugoslavia,<br>
at times too realistic such as its constant gross cursing in every scene;<br>
so weird that almost all indviduals in the military constantly use profanity and obscenity<br>
in their speech:-( AFter I retired from teaching, I drove--moved cars around California for rental<br>
agencies; but the 4 drivers I wroekd with constantly cursed and told me that the only reason I didn't<br>
is because I hadn't been in the army.)<br>
<br>
18. Bruce Almighty<br>
(best comic, thematic, moral, spiritual movie ever)<br>
<br>
19. Oblivion (s-f wonder<br>
(but has brief gratuitous swim scene and unbelievable, anachronistic ball-glove-50’s episode)<br>
<br>
20. Interstellar<br>
<br>
21. Face-Off <br>
(fascinating s-f story with deep moral dilemmas, contrasting a law-focused, though rigid, police
with an sociopathic, though fascinating, terroist;
despite extreme graphic slaughter and hard-to-believe abusive futuristic prison episode)<br>
<br>
22. Contact<br>
<br>
23. District 9<br>
(most creative, suspenseful, at times tragic, and comic<br>
by South African director)<br>
<br>
19. Flight of the Navigator<br>
(very best s-f Disney movie back when there wasn't CGI)<br>
<br>
20. By the Sword Divided Miniseries,<br>
(intense BBC English Civil War drama)<br>
<br>
21. The Mask<br>
(hilarious way-out-there creative comedy,<br>
despite one brief gross scene)<br>
<br>
22. Roads to Freedom BBC/PBS Miniseries<br>
from Jean-Paul Sartre's complex novel trilogy<br>
(about 20th century Europe's politcal, philsophical, moral dilmenas;<br>
though I feel ambivalent including it now that I know the horrific facts of Sartre's<br>
and Simone deBeauvoir’s immoral and unjust lives<br>
—including her grooming many girl students<br>
for his sexual exploitation, and her own,<br>
and their horrific—almost impossible to understand<br>
strong support of Stalin and the Soviet Union!)<br>
<br>
23. A Sound of Thunder <br>
(s-f short story by Ray Bradbury)<br>
<br>
24. Modern Times<br>
<br>
25. The Time Machine (original)<br>
<br>
26. What Dreams May Come<br>
<br>
27. Lost<br>
(1st season only;<br>
after that it became cheesy with contradictions and lame stuff)<br>
<br>
28. Logan’s Run<br>
<br>
29. Planet of the Apes<br>
(liked this classic; watched it 2 or 3 times in a row when I 1st<br>
saw it in the theatre in 1968)<br>
<br>
30. Centennial Miniseries<br>
<br>
31. Shogun Miniseries<br>
(dated now, but when 1st shown was powerful)<br>
<br>
32. The Terminator<br>
(despite extreme graphic slaughter)<br>
<br>
33. Romeo and Juliet<br>
(60’s, 1st version)<br>
<br>
34. The Outer Limits TV series<br>
(some creative s-f episodes)<br>
<br>
35. The Twilight Zone<br>
(many s-f episodes)<br>
<br>
36. The Expanse TV Series<br>
(1st season only)<br>
<br>
37. a few episodes of the terror drama, 24<br>
<br>
38. V Minseries (1983)<br>
<br>
39. Heroes (1st season though too episodic)<br>
<br>
40. The Walking Dead<br>
(1st season only)<br>
<br>
41. The Piano and Who’s on First --Abbot and Costello<br>
<br>
42.Sense8<br>
(creative plot/characters/themes but ruined by<br>
nearly constant graphic immoral behavior)<br>
<br>
43.The Fugitive<br>
<br>
44. The Day the Earth Stood Still<br>
<br>
45.Easy Rider<br>
<br>
46. Combat TV series<br>
(WW2 war drama)<br>
<br>
47. Sea Hunt<br>
<br>
48. Kindergarten Cop<br>
(intriguing comedy-thriller, but<br>
the climatic conclusion is way-too-excessively violent)<br>
<br>
49. Falling Down<br>
<br>
50. Oh God!<br>
(classic comedy with Burns as 'God')<br>
<br>
51. Dead Poet Society<br>
(Robin Williams as the creative teacher,<br>
a coming-of-age story,<br>
though it is too 60ish cliched)<br>
<br>
52.Over There<br>
(realistic Iraq war story, a few episodes)<br>
<br>
53. China Beach TV Series <br>
(a few episodes, especially<br>
one about the moral dilemma of whether or not medical staff<br>
ought to try and save the life of a Viet Cong terrorist leader<br>
<br>
54. Boys in Company C/Born on the 4th of July/Deer Hunter<br>
(powerful Vietnam War movies)<br>
<br>
55. Ghost in the Shell<br>
(amazingly original Japanese anime movie<br>
<br>
56. Simpsons<br>
(a few hilarious episodes)<br>
<br>
57. Rocky and Bullwinkle<br>
(cartoon with hidden allusions and jokes for<br>
parents watching with their kids)<br>
<br>
58. Wizard of OZ<br>
<br>
58. The Flinstones<br>
<br>
58. Top Cat<br>
(60's animation popular with us kids back then)<br>
<br>
59. Shane<br>
(most famous classic western)<br>
<br>
60. Z<br>
(intense politcal drama about the modern Greek dictatorship)<br>
<br>
ALSO MENTIONS:<br>
<br>
The Sound of Music<br>
<br>
some Woody Allan creative movies such as Annie Hall<br>
(though now I avoid his movies because of his immoral actions that have come out)<br>
<br>
The China Syndrome<br>
<br>
The Winds of War Miniseries<br>
(based upon Herman Wouk's WW2 novels)<br>
<br>
Testimony of 2 Men<br>
<br>
Against the Wind Miniseries<br>
<br>
Titanic<br>
<br>
The Good, Bad, and the Ugly<br>
<br>
Dr. Who British fantasy-sf series<br>
(a few episodes)<br>
<br>
Zorro TV series<br>
(my dad and I used to watch that when I was a kid)<br>
<br>
<br>
In the Light,<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-6696419001583436902024-01-19T11:46:00.000-08:002024-01-19T12:14:55.682-08:00More Public History Getting Torn Down-- How Wrong!How tragic that public history is being torn down!! Will the Jefferson Memorial be next since Jefferson Never freed his slaves?<br>
<br>
ALL human leaders in the past failed morally in many ways, as do we now!<br>
But some human leaders, despite their moral failures, we still honor with statues because of their GOOD actions they did!<br>
<br>
The statue of Gaspar de Portola, the Spanish explorer, at Pacifica was just torn down by Cal Trans!!
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/statue-removed-in-pacifica-gaspar-de-portola-18615209.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR2DP0oVMDGKvggnZz9vp0C7505BTfqxebngy-VFXstKC73_6htJiBn4j1k
<br>
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<br>
The statue of Spanish military officer Gaspar de Portola, which stood near the Pacifica Community Center for more than 30 years, started drawing attention in the summer of 2020, as discussions about racial justice and the legacies of colonization reached a boiling point across the nation.
<br>
In the late 1760s, Portola led a Spanish fleet along the California coast, including by the San Francisco Bay, and is credited with sparking settlements in the area that ultimately displaced Indigenous inhabitants.<br>
<br>
Bob n' Renee via Wiki Commons; Illustration via SFGATE<br>
<br>
In mid-2020, a petition calling for the statue’s removal — which read, in part, that the “colonialism, racism and patriarchy this statue represents has no place in the City of Pacifica” — gained nearly 5,000 signatures. Meanwhile, other statues of historical figures, including Christopher Columbus, Ulysses S. Grant and Junipero Serra, were being toppled across the Bay Area, either officially or by protesters.<br>
<br>
And, even William Penn's statue was to be removed by the National Park Service from Philadelphia this month, but enough people objected so that is uncertain now.<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggF2hmKA1OjQA54jGA6YBMd1of3hTNaJOKO7KYOnjCS6en59hDSZMivtjcIxgnsblp1q2UcxwoEHUr9pH0rq7xS-yKGNvmDwFk-CTQQFR-LV_nc3Gs-T5_UQH1cr3SqbYxMAW_j6C0CJHKWRiCV0YsfEavkaMMqtjxAss2ZgEtsi7U4gFhSnhA9n_31Fs/s1160/240109150155-03-welcome-park-philadelphia-01-08-2024.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="1160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggF2hmKA1OjQA54jGA6YBMd1of3hTNaJOKO7KYOnjCS6en59hDSZMivtjcIxgnsblp1q2UcxwoEHUr9pH0rq7xS-yKGNvmDwFk-CTQQFR-LV_nc3Gs-T5_UQH1cr3SqbYxMAW_j6C0CJHKWRiCV0YsfEavkaMMqtjxAss2ZgEtsi7U4gFhSnhA9n_31Fs/s320/240109150155-03-welcome-park-philadelphia-01-08-2024.webp"/></a></div>
Matt Rourke/AP<br>
YET William Penn paid the Native Americans for his landgrant of Pennsylvania (granted to him by the King). And he and his followers defended innocent Native Americans from racist-invaders such as the Scotch-Irish who masssacred innocent Native civilians!<br>
<br>
Portola's statue’s "confiscation, done without ceremony a little after 9 a.m. on Thursday, was first reported by the Pacifica Tribune."<br>
January 18, 2024<br>
<br>
<br>
In the Light of the Good, the Just, the Kind,<br>
and the actual facts of history, not the ideological distortions!<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-49768428303014407502024-01-14T06:52:00.000-08:002024-01-14T07:04:55.748-08:00Forgotten Black Leaders of the Past--Edward David Bland, Virginia Legistlator, Jordan Point Lighthouse Keeper, Teacher...Edward David Bland (1848–1927) 3 Terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, shoemaker, lighthouse keeper, teacher, minister.
His serving as a lighthouse keeper is very unusual, because lighthouse keepers were almost always Caucasian.<br>
<br>
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Excerpt from Wikipedia:<br>
"Bland was born into slavery, probably in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, to Frederick Bland and Nancy Yates Bland. After the Civil War, the family moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where Frederick Bland worked as a shoemaker and preacher. Bland learned the shoemaker's trade from his father, and attended a local night school organized by Northerners for African Americans. He married Nancy Jones of Petersburg on December 18, 1872; two years later, they moved to City Point, Virginia, where he worked as a shoemaker. The couple had nine children."<br>
<br>
"Bland became involved in local politics in the 1870s. At a mass meeting of black Republicans in 1879, Bland gave a speech advocating an alliance with the Readjuster party led by William Mahone. With the support of the Readjusters, Bland was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates that year, defeating incumbent Robert E. Bland to represent Prince George and Surry Counties. He served on the Committee on Executive Expenditures and the Committee on Schools and Colleges, and was a delegate to the Virginia Republican Party convention in 1880.<br>
<br>
"After being re-elected in 1881, he served on the Committee on Agriculture and Mining, the Committee on Claims, and the Committee on Retrenchment and Economy. During that session, black Republicans passed legislation to create a state college and an insane asylum for Virginia's African Americans and increase funding for black public schools. Their success was followed by white backlash; in 1883, Conservatives launched a white supremacy campaign which helped them regain a majority in the Virginia General Assembly.<br>
Bland was nevertheless re-elected that year and served on the Committee on Propositions and Grievances, the Committee on Enrolled Bills, and the Committee on Officers and Offices at the Capitol. After serving his third term, he yielded his seat to Republican William Faulcon but remained active in local politics.<br>
<br>
Later years
"Bland spent the rest of his life in Prince George County. He worked as a teacher, minister, shoemaker, and keeper of the Jordan Point Lighthouse, near City Point, Virginia. Around 1900, he moved to a farm, where he died of nephritis on February 13, 1927. He was buried at Providence Cemetery (now People's Memorial Cemetery) in Petersburg, Virginia.<br>
<br>
"In 2012, Virginia state senator Jennifer McClellan introduced a bill (VA HJR64) to "Recognize and celebrate the outstanding service of the African American men elected to the Virginia General Assembly during Reconstruction, on the occasion of the Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 2013." The bill recognized Bland along with Samuel P. Bolling, Daniel M. Norton, and other notable African-American legislators.<br>
<br>
"In 1954, the Edward D. Bland Courts housing project in Hopewell, Virginia, was named in his honor."<br>
<br>
--
from African-American Leaders during and following the Reconstruction era<br>
Wikipedia<br>
<br>
"More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states."
<br>
"Historian Canter Brown Jr. noted that in some states, such as Florida, the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after the end of Reconstruction in 1877...until before 1900."
<br>
<br>
"U.S. Senate<br>
Blanche Bruce – Mississippi 1875–1881<br>
P. B. S. Pinchback – Louisiana 1873, elected but the Senate refused to seat him (also Louisiana Lt. Governor, Louisiana Senate, acting Louisiana Governor, Louisiana Constitutional Convention)<br>
Hiram Rhodes Revels – Mississippi 1870 (also Mississippi Secretary of State)<br>
<br>
"U.S. House of Representatives<br>
Main articles: First generation of African-American House members, 1870–1893 and List of African-American United States representatives<br>
Richard H. Cain – South Carolina 1873–1875, 1877–1879 (also South Carolina Senate, House, Constitutional Congress)[2]
Henry P. Cheatham – North Carolina 1889–1894<br>
Robert C. De Large – South Carolina 1871–1873 (also South Carolina House, South Carolina Constitutional Convention, and State Land Commissioner)<br>
Robert B. Elliott – South Carolina 1871–1874 (also South Carolina House, South Carolina Attorney General, South Carolina Constitutional Convention, South Carolina Senate, city council)<br>
Jeremiah Haralson – Alabama 1875–1877 (also Alabama Senate and Alabama House)<br>
John Adams Hyman – North Carolina 1875–1877 (also North Carolina Senate and North Carolina Constitutional Convention)[2]
John Mercer Langston – Virginia 1890–1891 (also U.S. Minister to Haiti)<br>
Jefferson F. Long – Georgia 1871<br>
John R. Lynch – Mississippi 1873–1877, 1882–1883 (also speaker of the Mississippi House)<br>
John Willis Menard – Louisiana, 1868 elected but not seated<br>
Thomas E. Miller – South Carolina September 24, 1890 – March 3, 1891 (also South Carolina Senate, South Carolina House, and South Carolina Constitutional Convention)<br>
George W. Murray – South Carolina 1893–1897<br>
Charles E. Nash – Louisiana 1875 –1877<br>
James E. O'Hara – North Carolina 1883–1887 (also North Carolina House)<br>
....<br>
Joseph H. Rainey – South Carolina 1870–1879 (also South Carolina Senate and South Carolina Constitutional Convention)<br>
Alonzo J. Ransier – South Carolina 1873–1875 (also South Carolina Lt. Governor and Constitutional Convention)<br>
James T. Rapier – Alabama 1873–1875 (also Alabama Constitutional Convention)<br>
Robert Smalls – South Carolina 1875–1879, 1882–1887 (also South Carolina Senate, South Carolina House, and Constitutional Convention)<br>
Benjamin Sterling Turner – Alabama 1871–1873<br>
Josiah T. Walls – Florida 1871–1876 (also Florida House, Florida Senate, and Florida Constitutional Convention)<br>
George Henry White – North Carolina 1897–1901 (also North Carolina House and North Carolina Senate)[2]
Alabama<br>
Between 1868 and 1878, more than 100 African Americans served in the Alabama Legislature.<br>
<br>
Senate of Virginia<br>
James W. D. Bland – Prince Edward County 1869 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
Cephas L. Davis – Mecklenburg County 1879<br>
John M. Dawson – Charles City, Elizabeth City, James City, Warwick, and York counties 1874–1877<br>
Joseph P. Evans – Petersburg 1874<br>
Nathaniel M. Griggs – Prince Edward County 1887–1890<br>
James R. Jones Mecklenburg County – 1875–1877 and 1881–1883<br>
Isaiah L. Lyons – Surry, York, Elizabeth City, and Warwick counties 1869–1871<br>
William P. Moseley – Goochland County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1869–1871 (also Virginia House and Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
Daniel M. Norton – James City and York counties 1871–1873 and 1877–1887 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
Guy Powell – Nottoway, Lunenburg and Brunswick counties 1875–1878<br>
John Robinson – Cumberland County 1869–1873 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
William N. Stevens – Petersburg 1871–1878 and Sussex County 1881 (also Virginia House)<br>
George Teamoh – Norfolk County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
<br>
"Virginia House of Delegates<br>
William H. Andrews – Surry County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)[126]
William H. Ash – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1887
Briton Baskerville, Jr. – Mecklenburg County 1887[126]
Edward David Bland – Prince George and Surry counties 1879–1884
Phillip S. Bolling – Cumberland and Buckingham counties; elected in 1883 but was ruled ineligible[126]
Samuel P. Bolling – Cumberland and Buckingham counties 1883–1887[126]
Tazewell Branch – Prince Edward County 1874–1877
William H. Brisby – New Kent County 1869–1871[126]
Goodman Brown – Prince George and Surry counties 1887[126]
Peter J. Carter – Northampton County 1871–1878
Matt Clark – Halifax County 1874[126]
George William Cole – Essex County 1879[126]
Asa Coleman – Halifax County 1871–1873
Johnson Collins – Brunswick County 1879
Aaron Commodore – Essex County 1875–1877
Miles Connor – Norfolk County 1875–1877[126]
Henry Cox – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1869–1877
Isaac Dabbs – Charlotte County 1875–1877
McDowell Delaney – Amelia County 1871–1873[126]
Amos Andre Dodson – Mecklenburg County 1883
Shed Dungee – Cumberland and Buckingham counties 1879–1882[126]
Jesse Dungey – King William County 1871–1873[126]
Isaac Edmundson – Halifax County 1869–1871[126]
Ballard T. Edwards – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1869–1871[126]
Joseph P. Evans – Petersburg 1871–1873 (also Virginia Senate)
William D. Evans – Prince Edward County 1877–1880[126]
William W. Evans – Petersburg 1887[126]
William Faulcon – Prince George and Surry counties 1885–1887[126]
George Fayerman – Petersburg 1869–1871[126]
James A. Fields – Elizabeth City and James City counties 1889
Alexander Q. Franklin – Charles City County 1889[126]
John Freeman – Halifax County 1871[126]
William Gilliam – Prince George County 1871–1875
James P. Goodwyn – Petersburg 1874[126]
Armistead Green – Petersburg 1881–1884[126]
Robert G. Griffin – James City and York counties 1883[126]
Nathaniel M. Griggs – Prince Edward County 1883 (also Virginia Senate)
Ross Hamilton – Mecklenburg County 1869–1882, 1889
Alfred W. Harris – Petersburg 1881–1888
H. Clay Harris – Halifax County 1874–1875[126]
Henry C. Hill – Amelia County 1874–1875[126]
Charles E. Hodges – Norfolk County 1869–1871[126]
John Q. Hodges – Princess Anne County 1869–1871[126]
Henry Johnson – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1889–1890[126]
Benjamin Jones – Charles City County 1869–1871[126]
James R. Jones – Mecklenburg County 1885–1887 (also Virginia Senate)
Peter K. Jones – Greensville County 1869–1877 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Robert G. W. Jones – Charles City County 1869–1871[126]
Rufus S. Jones – Elizabeth City and Warwick counties 1871–1875[127]
William H. Jordan – Petersburg 1885–1887[126]
Alexander G. Lee – Elizabeth City and Warwick 1877–1879[128]
Neverson Lewis – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1879–1882[126]
James F. Lipscomb – Cumberland County 1869–1877[126]
William P. Lucas – Louisa County 1874–1875[126]
John W. B. Matthews – Petersburg 1871–1873[126]
J. B. Miller Jr. – Goochland County 1869–1871[126]
Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention and city council)
Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1874 (also Virginia Senate and Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Armistead S. Nickens – Lancaster County 1871–1875
Frederick S. Norton – James City and Williamsburg counties 1869–1871[126]
Robert Norton – Elizabeth City and York counties 1869–1872, 1881
Alexander Owen – Halifax County 1869–1871[126]
Littleton Owens – Princess Anne County 1879–1882[126]
Richard G. L. Paige – Norfolk County 1871–1875, 1879–1882
William H. Patterson – Charles City County 1871–1873
Caesar Perkins – Buckingham County 1869–1871, 1878–1888, 1887
Fountain M. Perkins – Louisa County 1869–1871[129]
John W. Poindexter – Louisa County 1875–1877[126]
Joseph B. Pope – Southampton County 1879[126]
Guy Powell – Brunswick County 1881 (also Virginia Senate)
William H. Ragsdale – Charlotte County 1869–1871[126]
John H. Robinson – Elizabeth City and James City, and York counties 1887[126]
R. D. Ruffin – Dinwiddie County 1875[126]
Archer Scott – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1875–1877, 1879–1884[126]
George L. Seaton – Alexandria County 1869–1871[126]
Dabney Smith – Charlotte County 1881[126]
Henry D. Smith – Greensville County 18790[126]
Robert M. Smith – Elizabeth City and Warwick counties 1875–1877[126]
William N. Stevens – Sussex County 1869–1879 (also Virginia Senate)
John B. Syphax – Arlington County 1874
Henry Turpin – Goochland County 1871
John Watson – Mecklenburg County 1869 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Maclin C. Wheeler – Brunswick County 1883[130]
Robert H. Whittaker – Brunswick County 1875–1877
Ellis Wilson – Dinwiddie County 1869–1871[126]
Virginia Constitutional Convention
William H. Andrews – Surry County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)[127]
James D. Barrett – Fluvanna County 1867–1868[127]
Thomas Bayne – Norfolk 1867–1868
James W. D. Bland – Prince Edward County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)[127]
William Breedlove – Essex County 1867–1868[127]
John Brown – Southampton County 1867–1868[127]
David Canada – Halifax County 1867–1868[127]
James B. Carter – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1867–1868[127]
Joseph Cox – Richmond 1867–1868[127]
John Wesley Cromwell – Clerk of the Virginia Constitutional Convention 1867
Willis Augustus Hodges – Princess Anne County 1867–1868
Joseph R. Holmes – Charlotte and Halifax counties 1867–1868
Peter K. Jones – Greensville and Sussex counties 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)
Samuel F. Kelso – Campbell County 1867–1868[127]
Lewis Lindsey – Richmond 1867–1868[127]
Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg 1867–1868 (also Virginia House and city council)
William P. Moseley – Goochland County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)
Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House and Virginia Senate)
Edward Nelson – Charlotte County 1867–1868[127]
Daniel M. Norton – Yorktown 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)
John Robinson – Cumberland County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)
James T. S. Taylor – Albemarle County 1867–1868[127]
George Teamoh – Portsmouth 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)
Burwell Toler – Hanover County 1867–1868
John Watson – Mecklenburg County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)[127]
Federal offices
P. H. A. Braxton – collector at the United States Custom House in Westmoreland County (also constable)
William Breedlow or Breedlove – postmaster of Tappahannock March 3, 1870 – March 13, 1871[11]
Robert H. Cauthorn – postmaster of Dunnsville September 21, 1897 – October 24, 1901[11]
James H. Cunningham – postmaster of Manchester September 20, 1869 – August 1, 1872[11]
William Henry Hayes – postmaster of Boydton June 17, 1889 – March 25, 1893[11]
John T. Jackson Sr. – postmaster of Alanthus March 23, 1891 – January 31, 1940[11]
William H. Johnson – postmaster of Baynesville November 29, 1893 – October 23, 1897[11]
Wade H. Mason – postmaster of Bluestone March 13, 1890 – November 14, 1902[11]
Isaac Morton – postmaster of Port Royal March 2, 1870 – October 29, 1872[11]
Daniel A. Twyman – postmaster of Junta August 12, 1898 – October 23, 1898<br>
Local offices<br>
P. H. A. Braxton – King William County constable 1872 (also U.S. Custom House collector)<br>
Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg city council (also Virginia House and Virginia Constitutional Convention)<br>
V. Cook Nickens – constable of Leesburg Magisterial District 1873<br>
<br>
...........<br>
"Further reading<br>
<br>
Bailey, Richard. Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867–1878.<br> Montgomery: Richard Bailey Publishers, 1995. ISBN 978-0962721809<br>
Brown, Jr., Canter. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867–1924. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998. ISBN 9780817309169
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar. Shadow and Light: An Autobiography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-8032-7050-3
Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era. Howard N. Rabinowitz, editor. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0252009723"<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-30399871188883406352024-01-03T15:40:00.000-08:002024-01-04T08:30:22.420-08:00Lines for inspiration and reflectionHearts-full, Not location or creed<br>
<br>
Instead Evangelicals live for US First--<br>
Group-egotists, of that proud sort<br>
<br>
Water piped in from pristine reservoirs<br>
Lush grass, high-tech, enlarged houses and store;<br>
<br>
But down below, poor refugees get Walled out,<br>
Live in patched together plastic tents,<br>
<br>
Preyed upon by ruthless cartel killers;<br>
Or back down on their small stony acre<br>
<br>
Near their shack and Jesus church of prayer<br>
Where peasants Juan and Ana used be <br>
<br>
Poverty, local gangs, and disease ruled;<br>
But now hope for kind actions, smiles,and care;<br>
<br>
<br>
Flighting Surprise<br>
<br>
In my morning mug<br>
Cold milk, washed blue berries<br>
Dark and delicious<br>
Lay waiting for another swig<br>
<br>
Wait; what’s that?<br>
Adhering--a wispy white feather<br>
<br>
Or more briefly:<br>
<br>
flighting surprise<br>
<br>
in my morning mug--<br>
adhering to wet blue berries<br>
a wispy white feather<br>
<br>
--
<br>
humming attack<br>
<br>
wearing my fiery red shirt<br>
for Christmas, I open our<br>
sliding glass door;<br>
sudden jolt in front<br>
of my startled face--<br>
a flash of feathers hum-buzzes,<br>
darts within inches of me;<br>
<br>
but away it flits left<br>
back to that flowering bush<br>
along our fence--<br>
me a reject<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
side of the road<br>
<br>
gray shadowed mail box<br>
overwhelmed green, red-purple<br>
bloomed jungle wonder<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
Twilight: Crossing Shimmering Streams into Dusk and Stars<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
fall back to autumn<br>
<br>
treetops blazing gold<br>
with the last light of this day--<br>
we lift our eyes<br>
<br>
<br>
a time for springing<br>
childhood,<br>
<br>
festivals of Monet-splashed leaves<br>
that my sister and I raked and piled high<br>
in the deep ditch in front<br>
and jumped down into,<br>
<br>
and our large garden behind the parsonage<br>
with pumpkins, melons, and withered corn rows...<br>
<br>
and lightning bugs on the wane,<br>
flashing on and off<br>
<br>
full of fall...<br>
<br>
--
<br>
<br>
bidingTimeabiding<br>
<br>
bite my teeth on famous lines<br>
a hole lot of fragmented shells;<br>
hunger hollows within--<br>
deepening abyss<br>
of lost longing<br>
lone-ranging, reigning the distance<br>
of a round heartless night<br>
<br>
of a round heart-last light<br>
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance<br>
of last longing<br>
steepening a-bless<br>
fulness hallows within--<br>
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;<br>
bide my heart on famous lines<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
August 2020:<br>
<br>
bolder utah<br>
<br>
utah boulders<br>
<br>
eye widening rock<br>
pastels bold in harvest's sun--<br>
basalt garden wonder<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
at the park's bat box<br>
<br>
my young grandson scooping up handfuls<br>
of dust<br>
and swinging it loose--<br>
fogged clouds of powder<br>
lighted by sunshine<br>
disfused halos<br>
that disperse<br>
back to cleated ground<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
gull wings<br>
<br>
gullish wings<br>
lightly spraying over gray clod fields<br>
6-year drought--<br>
so 'irrigating'!<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
In Every Crisis<br>
<br>
When flailed, blind-sided,<br>
Going down fast in<br>
A basket abyss shrivel of worth-loss<br>
And hope fails all drowned,<br>
Do we launch deeper into the Deep?<br>
<br>
Do we weep,<br>
Do we shrive?<br>
Thrive?<br>
<br>
For in every crisis<br>
Chry-sal-is*<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
*From crawler to butterfly--chrysalis<br>
<br>
Even in the worst, most evil events, each of us still has the difficult possibility of heeding Viktor Frankl’s shocking words about their horrific experiences in Auschwitz Concentration Camp:<br>
“Between stimulus [even trying to survive at Auschwitz!] and response<br>
there is a space.<br>
In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”<br>
“As we see it, an analogous relationship between the realm of human freedom and a realm superior to man is quite imaginable, so that man is endowed with free will...”<br>
Viktor E. Frankl<br>
“(26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997 was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and a Holocaust survivor, of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering and Türkheim. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy (literally "healing through meaning") a meaning-centered school of psychotherapy…part of existential and humanistic psychology theories. He is the author of over 39 books; he is most noted for his best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps...<br>
In 1941 he married his first wife Tilly Grosser, who was a station nurse at the Rothschild hospital. Soon after they were married, she became pregnant but they were forced to abort the child. Tilly died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. His father Gabriel died in the Terezin concentration camp(Theresienstadt) in 1942. His mother and brother, Walter, were both killed in Auschwitz<br>
--Bio from Wikipedia<br>
<br>
<br>
--
<br>
Dan's Brief Bio:<br>
How did I become a hobbling mutant with a red walker?<br>
Got struck with bad stroke of bad luck 4 1/2 years ago, shortly after returning with my sweetheart from a 12,000 mile Ram camper van trip to the heartland of the U.S. and the Great Lakes.<br>
Plenty of scenic hiking, history-learning, photo-taking, cusine-enjoying. So many<br>
beautiful natural scenes, historical places, colorful lighthouses, quilting stores, and chilly weather!<br>
<br>
Would you believe, we encountered 3 weeks of stormy weather in May and June?<br>
About May the 24th I encountered a dense snow storm in western Colorado, gripped knuckle-hard my Ram steering wheel because of dangerous side-winds in eastern Colorado, barely missed 2 tornados in Kansas by about 5 minutes, but got severe lightning all about me.<br>
And survived coat-cold weather in Michigan in June. Hit by heavy hail coming into Duluth, Minnesota.<br>
And it rained, rained, rained--especially in Missouri.<br>
However, we loved the trip:-)<br>
<br>
Now I am virtually stuck here looking out at the chilly gloom of January 2024 on the Central Coast of California, at our bare-branched plum tree, our 2 rambunctious cats, the Sphinx and Selah.<br>
-----<br>
You might like to do a Google sleuth and find washed up pieces of my poetic driftwood lines on the vast shores of the Internet.<br>
<br>
Dan's wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices,<br>
The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot,
and<br>
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.<br>
<br>
Previous published poems in the past:<br>
October 2019:<br>
A Poetic Debacle of the American News<br>
<br>
May 2019:<br>
trembled<br>
First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal<br>
<br>
April 2019:<br>
playing blues<br>
<br>
March 2019:<br>
I became a beachcomber of beauty<br>
<br>
February 2019:<br>
El Paso<br>
<br>
First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV<br>
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2019/02/el-paso-rallys-political-contradictions.html
<br>
Alluded Fractures<br>
<br>
A Twist of Words<br>
<br>
First pub. in Counterexample Poetics<br>
<br>
January 2019:<br>
my gramma's beheading like the results of Dort<br>
<br>
September 2018:<br>
mused moments in nature<br>
including<br>
<br>
side of the road mailbox<br>
<br>
california dazing<br>
<br>
January 2018:<br>
Lemons, "Pineapples" and Mexico<br>
(for my dad)<br>
<br>
October 2017:<br>
MORNING GLORY<br>
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/10/morning-glory.html<br>
<br>
connudrumed Clockwise Cat<br>
starbacked<br>
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/59489337/klox-and-katz-ink<br>
<br>
October 2016:<br>
a haiku, dripping rain vox poetica<br>
http://voxpoetica.com/dripping-rain-drizzles/<br>
<br>
December 2015:<br>
bidingTimeabiding Dead Snakes<br>
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/12/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html<br>
<br>
Poem for My Dad Lightwaveseeker<br>
<br>
Deaf to Death<br>
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2015/12/personal-two-poems-for-my-dad.html<br>
<br>
September 2015:<br>
<br>
Ricochet Dead Snakes<br>
First pub. Yes Poetry<br>
<br>
End of a Rope
First pub. The New Verse News<br>
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
August 2015:<br>
The Signal of the Flag<br>
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/08/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html<br>
<br>
<br>
The Wind Blew Away the Young <br>
(Dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut)<br>
First pub. in Mad Swirl<br>
<br>
July 2015:<br>
<br>
One Dog Night Dead Snakes<br>
First pub. in Unlikely Stories 2.0<br>
<br>
<br>
Film Over Our Eyes<br>
First pub. in Camel Saloon<br>
<br>
Juxtaposition<br>
First pub. in Camel Saloon<br>
https://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/search?q=wilcox<br>
<br>
April 2015:<br>
Gazing on Gaza Contemporary American Voices<br>
<br>
<br>
earstopper<br>
First pub. in The Write Room<br>
<br>
our 'checkered' past<br>
<br>
https://contemporaryamericanvoices.wordpress.com/2015/04/<br>
<br>
<br>
February 2015:<br>
The Modern Covenant Dead Snakes<br>
First pub. in The Cerebral Catalyst<br>
<br>
Iraqi Temples<br>
First pub. in The November 3rd Club<br>
<br>
On Visiting Hemingway's Mansion<br>
First pub. in The Rogue Poetry Review<br>
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/02/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html<br>
<br>
Moon River Poetry Pacific<br>
First pub. in Ascent Aspirations<br>
<br>
horse trailer<br>
First pub. in lyrical passion poetry<br>
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html<br>
<br>
<br>
November 2014:
The Road to Elsewhere Fish Food Magazine
October 2014:
RELEASE OF KINDLE VERSION OF THE FEELING OF THE EARTH
August 2014:
The Pull-Out Coyote vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/pull-out-coyote/
dark cliff walls Three Line Poetry
http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=27&issue=27
July 2014:
If you haven't checked out any of my other creative websites, hark over to them:
http://www.selahriver.com/ Social and Spiritual and Personal Poems
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/ More Poems and Stories, Light in the Darkness
http://lastthings.weebly.com/ Speculative/Science Fiction Poems and Stories
May 2014:
1967 Dead Snakes
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/05/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html
Use Your Head
First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV
Face-Overs
First pub. in Mouse Tales Press
JANUARY 2014:
THE FEELING OF THE EARTH
A Speculative Novel of the Past and the Future
In 2013:
Short story, "The Gift," in Scattered Hearts: An Anthology
and available on the website
November 2013:
Film Over Our Eyes Camel Saloon
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/11/film-over-our-eyes.html
October 2013:
Juxtaposition Camel Saloon
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/10/juxtaposed.html
September 2013:
The Dog's Bite...in Syria Dead Snakes
First pub. in The Recusant, UK
Gum Up
First pub. in Poydras Review
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html
August 2013:
Retreaded Poetry Pacific
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2013/08/1-poem-by-daniel-wilcox.html
July 2013:
Nail Holes Enhance Literary Magazine
June 2013:
"Roll Ever Columbia" cavalcadeofstars
Northeast Night
two hands vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/two-hands/
May 2013:
The Last Libation Dead Snakes
First pub. in Sentinel Online
Midnight Voyager
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/05/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html
First pub. in La Fenetre in France
April 2013:
The Revolution Dead Snakes
First pub. in Lucid Rhythms
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/04/daniel-wilcox-poem.html
March 2013:
Ah, Bird Poop Van Dead Snakes
First pub. in The Bicycle Review
November 2012:
In Every Crisis Ancient Paths Literary Magazine
After the Battle The Write Room
They Have Procedures Mad Swirl
Face-Overs Mouse Tales Press
October 2012:
At the Retreat Ascent Aspirations
September 2012:
Three Sons Fight and Allah Knot Magazine, Middle Eastern Journal
First pub. in outwardlink.net
Whether...an Arab Spring
First pub. in The New Verse News
Shell Casings
First pub. in different form in The Recusant
El Paso Unlikely Stories IV
Use Your Head?
http://www.unlikelystories.org/12/wilcox0912.shtml
Monks Brawl in Holy Sepulcher
First pub. in The New Verse News
August 2012:
AWOL Paradise Review
July 2012:
Shipping Thirty Pieces The Camel Saloon
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/07/shipping-thirty-pieces.html
WayLight The Mindful Word
4-Letter Praise
http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/poems-daniel-wilcox-present-moment/
Discarding
First pub. in Tipton Poetry Journal
Present Moment
First pub. in Liturgical Credo
Retina Shadow
First pub. in The Greensilk Journal
Outside the Limit
First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal
June 2012:
horse trailer Lyrical Passion Poetry
First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal
May 2012:
Clammy Chops vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/clammy-chops/
Their Beekeeper's Moon The Greensilk Journal
http://www.thegsj.com/poetry_3_spring_2012.html
4th poem down
The Journey Rime of Faith Rubber Lemon
April 2012:
Lapping Ideas Front Porch Review
First pub. in The Centrifugal Eye
Out of the Carcass Enhance
March 2012:
" Let's Do the 'Twister'" The New Verse News
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2012/03/lets-do-twister.html
February 2012:
Gum Up Poydras Review
End of a Rope
First pub. in The New Verse News
January 2012:
Human Imitation Bigger Stones
Joan of Arc The Camel Saloon
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/01/joan-of-arc.html
December 2011:
Rock the Nations as a Cradle The New Verse News
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/12/rock-nations-as-cradle.html
Sunday Morning Quill & Parchment
http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Dec2011/sund.html
November 2011:
Cape May Light hotmetalpress.net
The Mystery of Modern Life
Missouri's 'Job'
Markers
Ventura Beach
October 2011:
Summer of Love Quill & Parchment
First pub. in Wild Violet
http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Oct2011/summer.html
Reflection in Glass Westward Quarterly
First pub. in The Oak Bend Review
'Whether' The New Verse News
Of the Arab Spring
http://archive.feedblitz.com/8753/~4086452
Remix: Babbling On, Again, River Eunoia Review
http://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/remix-babbling-on-again-river/
One Dog Night Unlikely Stories
http://www.unlikelystories.org/11/wilcox1011.shtml
Brief Decades Review
Mean 'Wile' Unlikely Stories
First pub. in Frame Lines
Tomorrow and Unlikely Stories
and Tomorrow and
Tomorrow
First pub. in The Medulla Review
July 2011:
Walls The New Verse News
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/07/walls.html
June 2011:
Ah, Bird Poop Van amphibi.us
First pub. in The Bicycle Review
May 2011:
A Last The New Verse News
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/05/last.html
April 2011:
Perception Poetry Super Highway
the bumps Haiku Journal
March 2011:
sliced Three Line Poetry
dark tent
black barred window
http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=2&issue=2
earstopper The Write Room
Our Indy Pacer
Casting Out
February 2011:
The Paradox of Truth Western Friend Magazine
Borderlines The Camel Saloon
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2011/02/borderlines.html
Traveling Within The Camel Saloon
January 2011:
Time Lapse Widowmoon Press
The Animal Sound in the Trees Widowmoon Press
First pub. in The Driftwood Review
Stone Seal Widowmoon Press
First pub. in The Writer's Eye Magazine
The Cat's Scientist Windowmoon Press
First pub. Abandoned Towers Magazine
<br>
And many more before. Do a Google search and find more washed up pieces of his poetic driftwood on the vast shores of the Internet.<br>
<br>
His wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices,
The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot,
and<br>
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.<br>
<br>
There are 3 collections of Daniel's published poems,<br>
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls,<br>
Dark Energy<br>
and selah river.<br>
All 3 areavailable at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstores, and coffee shops.<br>
For Daniel's speculative writing, futuristic poems and stories warp over to<br>
http://lastthings.weebly.com/.<br>
<br>
Other websites include<br>
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/<br>
http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/<br>
and<br>
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/<br>
<br>
And OLDER PUBLISHED POEMS:<br>
<br>
December 2010:
Ricochet Yes, Poetry
November 2010:
Of Princes and Frogs Liturgical Credo
But the Cesspool...
Right Here
The High Way Chair
Present Moment
http://liturgicalcredo.wordpress.com/present-moment-daniel-wilcox/
The So n' So Argument MediaVirus Magazine
October 2010:
The Last Act Midwest Literary Magazine
Short Story
Morning Four and Twenty
http://4and20poetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/4and20_v3i10.pdf
A Word from the Tree Front Porch Review
September 2010:
All 'Hail' Gloom Cupboard
August 2010:
A Love Affair The Clockwise Cat
Iraqi Temples
http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2010/07/two-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html
Giving Talk 'A' Graded Clutching at Straws
July 2010:
Sign of the 12 Rubber Lemon #1
Tomorrow The Medulla Review
and Tomorrow
and Tomorrow
June 2010:
The Hatted Fish Structo Magazine #4 UK
http://structomagazine.co.uk/
The Canine Trail vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/the-canine-trail-memorial/
Onslaught Danse Macabre
Live Branch Reach Willows Wept Review
Night Watch Psalm
May 2010:
manta ray Lyrical Passion Poetry
Retina Shadow The Greensilk Journal
http://www.thegsj.com/poetpg5sp2010.html
The Teeth of It The Centrifugal Eye
April 2010:
Israeli Morning Wild Violet Literary Magazine
http://www.wildviolet.net/2010/04/13/israeli-morning/
red peaches A Handful of Stones
The Last Exit Right Hand Pointing
March 2010:
molten froth waves A Handful of Stones
February 2010:
Sayings so Unkind The Centrifugal Eye
Ah, Bird-Poop Van The Bicycle Review
Three Poems The Copperfield Review
Midnight Voyager Unfettered Verse
The Cheyenne Gift Scattered Hearts Anthology
Short Story
January 2010:
On Visiting Leaf Garden
Hemingway's Mansion
Only Left Standing
The Modern Covenant Calliope Nerve
Of Things Past Static Movement
and Future
December 2009:
The Nemesis Counterexample Poetics
Three Sons outwardlink.net
Divergent Learning
A Song of Songs
http://www.outwardlink.net/features/danielwilcox/song_of_songs_into_olding.html
The Wind Blew Away Mad Swirl
the Young
Caught in the Act
in Iraq
October 2009:
To Whom it Does Not protestpoems.org
Concern
http://protestpoemsdotorg.blogspot.com/2009/10/daniel-wilcox.html
August 2009:
End of a Rope The New Verse News
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2009/08/end-of-rope.html
Her Strands Writer's Ink
Walking the Night
July 2009:
Dark Energy Diminuendo Press
Book of Poems
The Trouble with Names In the book Writing Cheerfully on the Web
and Terms
a few blasphemies The Recusant
The Winged Ones
Black Light
Comcerning this 500th
Anniversary of John Calvin
and his Tongues of Fire
June 2009:
love's bullion Full of Crow
mowed field
May 2009:
Picture Identity Oak Bend Review
Under the Sky World The Green Silk Journal
Hardwood Tap Dancer
http://www.thegreensilkjournal.citymax.com/poetrypg2may09.html
Ever After The Shine Journal
Our Human Real Estate Word Catalyst
The Miser
For Goodness Sake
April 2009:
Cambria in Gray The Houston Literary Review
restless slumber
March 2009:
'ExHume' the Mind Counterexample Poetics
The Incredible Shrinking
Consciousness
Eye Bandits
A Twist of the Words
Alluded Fractures
The Cup Wild Violet
http://www.wildviolet.net/linked_lives/cup.html
February 2009:
Mean 'wile' Frame Lines
The Cat's Scientist Abandoned Towers Print Magazine #2
Cold as Hell Frostwriting
First pub. in The Externalist
In Store for Less the poetry warrior
January 2009:
Missing Star and Cradle Danse Macabre
December 2008:
Live Branch Reach Western Friend Magazine
Less Is More
The Daughter's Return Word Riot
Body Parts
California Mythic Death Moria
AWake
http://www.moriapoetry.com/wilcox.html
November 2008:
The Nature of Fishhooks The Centrifugal Eye
Art Clasps Mississippi Crow Print Magazine
Getting the Slip
Up Early
after the cyclone Hanging Moss Journal
A Modern Psalm
Monks Brawl in Holy The New Verse News
Sepulcher
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/11/monks-brawl-in-holy-sepulcher.html
The Mythic Mask Mad Swirl
after the loss
The Slowness of Danger
three haiku ocean diamond
Stone Seal The Writer's Eye
The Faces of Rock Danse Macabre
Short Story Reprint
Perception in Late Night Word Catalyst Magazine
Under the Big Sky
A Song of Songs
Into Olding
October 2008:
Research Filing Cabinets Mad Swirl
In the Far Lane The Scruffy Dog Review
Wasted Wealth Word Catalyst Magazine
The Shell Zebra Mussels In
September 2008:
The Dog's Bite The Recusant
The Loss of April Oak Bend Review
Reflection in Glass
The Lady in the Garden
Baja Abandoned Towers
Without Rime
The Possibility of Suburbia
Divergent Learning
Paradise
The Space Clown
First pub. in Right Hand Pointing
August 2008:
Gargoyle The Clockwise Cat
Utter Common Sense
library census
Reflection While
'Lying' on a Bed at a Slant
Collapsed Falling
http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/07/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html
July 2008:
Dirge in the Night Danse Macabre
Night Watch Psalm The Cherry Blossom Review
Messed-Up News Crossing Rivers Into Twilight
June 2008:
The Road Kill Cliche The New Verse News
May 2008:
Two Haiku Ink Sweat & Tears
The Crucified Isle The Centrifugal Eye
April 2008:
Black Samaritan The Houston Literary Review
of the Street
Rock Life
Partially Found
Poem Lost--
Hemingway
By the Waters erbacce print journal
surreal morning
Stoned for Truth
Dear Susan B
The Modern The Cerebral Catalyst
Covenant
March 2008:
the animal sound in the trees The Driftwood Review
Of Things Past and Future Half Way Down the Stairs
http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net/index.php?action=view&id=76
February 2008:
Aesopian Snail The Cerebral Catalyst
Discarding Tipton Poetry Journal
http://tiptonpoetryjournal.com/tpj8/wilcox.htm
Waking at the Funeral Lunarosity
Montana's History
Lesson
The 'Darlossness' The Clockwise Cat
of Dawkins
http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/01/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html
Only Left Standing
What Nerve of
the 23rd Psalm
Artesian Well
of Voice
Losing Your Head
January 2008:
Be Forewarned The New Verse News
http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/01/be-forewarned.html
December 2007:
Outside the Limit Flutter Poetry Journal
The Revolution Lucid Rhythms
The Space Clown Right Hand Pointing
November 2007:
Shell Casings The Recusant
shadowed garden The Green Silk Journal
http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/5161101.htm
Conflicted West The Writer's Eye
Fable of the North The Centrifugal Eye
My Canadian And in the book Dark Energy
Memories
From Below
the Line
Caught in the Act The Clockwise Cat
http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2007/11/five-political-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html
Kiss of Death
'Heir Ball'
The Day My
Battery Died
Carpet Diem
Pomona Hills Identity Theory
Her Santa Right Hand Pointing
Barbara Way
Court Hearing
The Faces of Rock The Danforth Review
Short Story
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/danforth/2007/no20/fiction/09_07/wilcox.htm
2 Haiku Idlewheel literary friction
http://idlewheel.wordpress.com/volume-2/esch-haiku/
Summer of Love Wild Violet
in Philadelphia
http://www.wildviolet.net/blue_moon/summer_love.html
Harvest Time Words-Myth
and in the book Dark Energy
Yosemite The Indite Circle
Sitting... Word Riot
Natural Selection
Lapping Ideas The Centrifugal Eye
I Love You Flannery
O'Connor
The Last Libation Sentinel Poetry Online
http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/0207/wilcox.html
Redux of Moose Words-Myth
and Men
And in the book Dark Energy
Iraqi Temples The November 3rd Club
One The Green Silk Journal
http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/4231640.htm
3rd poem down
On Hemingway's Mansion The Rogue Poetry Journal
Fall's Impression The WriteSideUp and Dark Energy Book
Cold as Hell The Externalist and in the book Dark Energy
Word from Tree La Fenetre International Literary Magazine
The Wearing
Midnight Voyager
The Essence of Software
The Cat n' Mouse Anthrozine
http://anthrozine.com/ptry/cat.and.mouse.html
3 Haiku The Stylus Poetry Journal
Sunday Morning The Other Side Magazine
The First Gulf War The Evangelical Visitor
Supper The Other Side Magazine
Fall Eyes Gambit
Editorial Columist The Forty-Niner of Cal State University, Long Beach
Other Poems and Articles Small Magazines and School Publications
Short Story Award Scholastic Magazine National Short Story Contest
We're Disturbing the Chaos Honorable Mention
<br>
--<br>
<br>
Daniel's wandering, wondering lines have appeared in many magazines including Contemporary American Voices, vox poetica, Dead Snakes, Word Riot, Centrifugal Eye,<br>
Write Room, Enhance, Static Movement, Counterexample Poetics, and Unlikely Stories IV.<br>
Three large collections of his published poetry are in print: Dark Energy,<br>
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls, and selah river. And a speculative novel, The Feeling of the Earth, one of alternate history and futuristic science fiction.<br>
<br>
Before that, Dan hiked through the University of Nebraska, Long Beach State (Creative Writing), Montana, Pennsylvania, Europe, Palestine-Israel, Mexico, Canada, Arizona, and many other states. Now he resides with his quilting wife on the central coast of California. Life gets difficult in elder age as I got a stroke of bad luck, so am mostly house-bound. But as circumstances get tough--we MUTANTS get tougher:-).
<br>
<br>
<br>
In the Light,<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-6615657857290249942023-12-27T13:36:00.000-08:002023-12-27T13:47:23.467-08:00Looking into 2024, here's my last Life-Stance views in one page about Reality, Life, and HistoryMY LIFE-STANCE in one page --JANUARY 2024<br>
<br>
1 REALITY—is MEANINGFUL--the Cosmos, Life, Natural Laws, Moral Truths, Math, Reason, Scientific Method, Technology, Creativity...<br>
<br>
All humans have worth within themselves!<br>
<br>
And to a lesser degree, other primates and sentient animals, worth in themselves...<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5eCxwipp4F8kLFojIsXwx2LzdooSLfsb6KkAg0KrhdcQG6Gbl-qRc-tDVprhCJxubQaikON7Jg5IXLAYrIdlVBugwMMHAEGiBFeboJo8L7S66Tldx1FztrgeY1f1dnVp1fvS3LAl_jdeOrGzc9u_zXtbkLYaRGz0WM-M5F8CHjBXus2lRG7-Wac8P4iY/s789/galaxy%20Wonder.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5eCxwipp4F8kLFojIsXwx2LzdooSLfsb6KkAg0KrhdcQG6Gbl-qRc-tDVprhCJxubQaikON7Jg5IXLAYrIdlVBugwMMHAEGiBFeboJo8L7S66Tldx1FztrgeY1f1dnVp1fvS3LAl_jdeOrGzc9u_zXtbkLYaRGz0WM-M5F8CHjBXus2lRG7-Wac8P4iY/s320/galaxy%20Wonder.jpg"/></a></div>
I suppose one could say that plants, bugs, rocks, asteroids, planets, solar systems, quasars, Black Holes, gravity, relativity, etc. have worth in themselves, but since none of those are conscious, aware, rational, etc., it’s probably a category error to make such a huge judgment about inert things or unconscious processes.<br>
<br>
Despite the ruthless, impersonal nature of Deep Time evolutionary change over at least the last 3.7 billions years of survival of the fittest, and the luckiest...<br>
<br>
And the large number of human thinkers who advocate atheism, naturalism, materialism, anti-realism, and others who claim revealed religions, ideologies of extreme left and extreme right...<br>
<br>
Those are false, bind alleys into nihilism, denying all human worth, purpose, meaning, morality, reason, math etc.<br>
<br>
2 Instead, Like many brilliant famous scientists have emphasized (including Albert Einstein), Ultimate/Essential/Transcendent Nature of Reality is unknown to all finite, limited humans-FAR beyond anything we are capable of thinking or concluding.<br>
<br>
Who knows if there are advanced species in the Cosmos like the science writer Carl Sagan speculated?<br>
<br>
HOWEVER, many brilliant thinkers have SPECULATED on possible answers, one of the most recent being that the nature of REALITY is PROCESS, Not substance, Not Irrational, Not Chance...<br>
<br>
And that seeking the ultimate doesn’t come by reductionism down to only tiny particles like theoretical physicist and atheist Brian Greene states (in<i> The Elegant Universe</i>) and others such as Sean M. Carroll.<br>
<br>
Other theoretical physicists think we need to focus upwards to the possible Multi-Verse for finding ultimate significance.<br>
Different views come from other famous cosmologists such as Paul Davies, George F. R. Ellis, the South African theoretical physicist “who is considered the world leader in relativity and cosmology. He co-wrote the book, The Large Scale of Space-Time with Stephen Hawking.”<br>
https://royalsociety.org/people/george-ellis-11396/....<br>
<br>
3. When all has been said and done in my 77-years-of-life, I realize now that Family, Friends, etc. don’t care as much as we old guys would like.<br>
<br>
BUT, I do know that Life isn’t about me.<br>
<br>
Heck, over a million Americans AS IMPORTANT AS ME died in the COVID pandemic in only a couple of years.
Does anyone in particular care?<br>
<br>
NO!<br>
<br>
Many current American leaders even deny social distancing, masking, and the vaccinations’ worth and claim, instead, that COVID was all a “Democratic scam” and the completely false huge lies about alleged massive fraud in the 2020 election (of which there is not even a single shred of evidence. Even some Republican leaders such as those in Georgia emphasize there is no basis for the false claims)!<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
I’m just one of billions of humans inhabiting this tiny planet in a minor solar system on the edge of a galaxy among billions of galaxies...<br>
<br>
And, I know for a fact, though I can’t imagine it, that my brief important time is almost up. Like my beloved dad 10 years ago, I will in the not to distant future, breathe my last.<br>
<br>
And 2 undertakers will arrive like orderlies, will wrap my corpse in a winding sheet, bag my body onto a rolling cart, and haul it out.<br>
<br>
BUT I AM THANKFUL FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL TIMES I’VE EXPERIENCED, THE OTHER HUMANS I’VE CARED FOR, AND THE AMAZING FACTS I’VE LEARNED IN MY LONG LIFE.<br>
<br>
HOPEFULLY, the TRUE GOD WILL REMEMBER ME, and some humans I’ve known will think of me once and a while as they continue to live on into Reality’s FUTURE.<br>
<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox, the aged stroked mutant;-)<br>
<br>
12/27/23<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-44199349159512732862023-12-09T17:03:00.000-08:002023-12-09T23:54:49.881-08:00Senator Mark Hatfield to Congress on THE FALLACY OF "PEACE TROUGH STRENGTH"The current leaders of Congress and Presient Biden need to hear these words of warning from 1989 against excessive spending on weapons and war preparation.
from Address to the President and Congress from Republican Senator Mark Hatfield in 1989<br>
Short Bio:...a Lieutenant J. G. in the Navy, Mark Hatfield commanded landing craft in some of the bloodiest battles of World War II. He was one of the first U.S. military personnel to enter Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.<br>
These experiences, coupled with a deep religious faith and steadfast belief in the progressive principles... [and] Despite warnings of political suicide, as Oregon's Governor, Mark Hatfield cast the only vote at the 1965 National Governors Conference in opposition to a resolution supporting President Johnson's Vietnam war policy.<br>
<br>
In 1981, Senator Hatfield cast the lone vote in the Senate against enormous increases in the Department of Defense budget.<br>
<br>
Known as the father of the Nuclear Freeze, Senator Hatfield joined with Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) to force a halt to the nuclear arms race.<br>
In 1981, he sponsored the first prohibition against U.S. combat troop involvement in El Salvador and in 1984 authored the amendment which successfully deleted funds to conduct the so-called "secret war" in Nicaragua.<br>
<br>
In 1984, he was credited with single-handedly preventing renewed production of nerve gas weapons.<br>
<br>
WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1989<br>
Vol. 135 No. 107<br>
Congressional Record<br>
<br>
"Peace through strength is a fallacy..."
Senator HATFIED: “People wanted to believe that victory was right around the corner, and they wanted to believe that our massive war spending would one day end. And so at least for a couple more years the money kept flowing into the military.<br>
<br>
Mr. President, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War to the Spanish-American War through World War I, through World War II, through Korea, through Vietnam, and through the cold wars in between:<br>
<br>
At no time did the spending for military purposes reduce or diminsh after those wars. They reached a peak during a war, and then remained at that peak following the war. No build down-only a build up. And no peace dividend, Mr. President. None at all.<br>
<br>
And as we entered this decade, the clarion call went out: despite one of the largest and best trained militaries in the world, despite a nuclear arsenal of unprecedented destructive power, we're somehow vulnerable. A spending gap is what they called it and so we began a massive buildup; bil- lions and billions of dollars to catch up.<br>
<br>
Nevermind that this spending gap was a phony as the bomber gap of the 1950s and the missile gap of the 1060s-Democrats and Republicans alike dutifully lined up and marched to the drummer of higher military spending.<br>
<br>
And so it is that we have gathered here every year since only to play on. the margins. Oh, we sound reasona- ble-and we like to think that we sound responsible. We go to hearings and briefings, we have long debates over this program and that program, this weapon or that weapon, and we cast our votes on amendment after amendment.<br>
But when it comes right down to it, Mr. President, we are only playing on the margins. This Congress-a bipartisan majority of this Congress-has approved $2.2 trillion of the $2.3 trillion requested for defense spending during this decade alone.<br>
<br>
We have played on the margins for so long, Mr. President, that I am afraid we do not even know what the real issues are anymore. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that many of the programs we have authorized- and are authorizing again here today- are intended for one purpose and one purpose only; mass destruction.<br>
<br>
We seem to have lost sight of the fact that every dollar we spend on bombs and bullets means that we are underfunding programs to meet the Nation's desperate human needs: health care, education, our war on drugs, low income housing, prison con- struction, AIDS research-all of these things are part of our national defense.<br>
<br>
Sometimes, Mr. President, we even lose sight of the margins. Several days ago, the Senate considered an amendment earmarking money for the devel- opment of more lethal weapons for our ground troops.<br>
<br>
More lethal? Even the words have begun to lose their meaning.<br>
<br>
what is more lethal supposed to mean when some of our troops already carry tactical nuclear weapons on their backs? But nobody else even raised an eyebrow: the vote was 98-1.<br>
<br>
I remember, back in 1981, when 10 subcommittees of the Senate Appro- priations Committee were forced to make $9.9 billion in cuts from domestic spending-so that defense spending could be increased by $7.4 billion.<br>
<br>
We can no longer afford to fool ourselves, I said in the full committee markup- but oh, how wrong I was. The Nation's defense budget has almost tripled in the past decade with our bipartisan blessing and spending to meet the desperate human needs throughout this country has been cut and cut and cut again to pay for it-some 33 per-cent reduction in the nondefense discretionary programs in the last decade.<br>
<br>
Could somebody tell me if there is some secret strategy-some finite figure that we will one day reach and then suddenly be secure? Will we ever have enough?<br>
<br>
I do not think so. <br>
<br>
We are, Mr. President, like the thirsty man in the desert who thinks he sees an oasis ahead but when he moves closer, it moves too. Further and further-or for us, higher and higher. And as his thirst finally kills him, our lust for bigger and better weapons of mass de- struction is going to destroy us one day too.<br>
<br>
Peace through strength is a fallacy, Mr. President, for peace is not simply the absence of a nuclear holocaust.<br>
<br>
Peace is not a nation which has seen its teenage suicide rate more than double in the past two decades. Peace is not a nation in which more people die every 2 years of gunshot wounds than died in the entire Vietnam War. Peace is not the town in Pennsylvania which last year was forced to cancel its high school graduation because officials believed that a group of students planned to commit suicide at the ceremony. And peace is not here in Washington where<br>
after leading the Nation in murders last year, children are beginning to show the same psychological trauma as children in Belfast, Northern Ireland.<br>
<br>
Can we really believe that the decisions we have made--and are making--do not have a direct relationship to the violence which plagues our Nation?
I suggest that we consider changing the motto on our coins, Mr. President. <br>
<br>
It now reads: In God We Trust-but by blindly pursuing the nuclear arms race, by putting the destruction of life over the preservation of life, we have foresaken our trust in God. We have shaken our fist at God as E.B. White once put it, we have stolen God's stuff. Our motto ought to be:<br>
<br>
In Bombs We Trust. That is our national ethic-that is the example we are setting here, on this floor.<br>
...is there no ethical dimension to the arms race, to our abuse of our natural and human resources, to our waste of scientific genius, to the bankrupting of the Federal Treasury to pay for weapons of mass destruction?<br>
<br>
Is there no ethical dimension to our decision, our conscious decision, to add more and more weapons to our stockpiles, while millions of people in our own country have no roof over their heads, <br>
<br>when we cannot fund our homeless programs, when we cannot fund our war on drugs?<br>
<br>
Is there no ethical dimension to the violent examples we are setting for our children? Is there no ethical dimensions to the definition of national security that we are passing on to the developing nations of the world, where arsenals are now as bloated as the bellies of the Third World's children?<br>
<br>
... who accept the twisted logic which says we must produce nerve gas to negotiate a treaty; which says we must continue nuclear testing to ensure safety. A safe nuclear weapon? Mr. President, I wish George Orwell could sit in on these debates.<br>
<br>
...the United States and the Soviet
Union deployed more nuclear warheads than will eliminated under the treaty. That is right. We spent and spent and spent, so that the adminis- tration could negotiate from strength. For all our money, all our weapons, the only thing we received in return was a tiny little dent in the stockpile we had just created.<br>
<br>
...
To those who may suggest that I am naive, I respond: I have been there. As a young naval officer, I walked through the rubble of Hiroshima-a month after the bomb was dropped. I saw the death-the slow, agonizing pain-and the charred bodies.<br>
<br>
As we stand here playing on the margins, Mr. President, as we stand here voting 98 to 1 for the development of more lethal weapons, the stench of death haunts me still.<br>
<br>
Forty-five years ago, we could legitimately say that we did not know. Now we do. Let me read just a few lines of John Hershey's "Hiroshima:"
He found about 20 men and women on the sandspit. He drove the boat onto the bank and urged them to get aboard. They did not move and he realized that they were too weak to lift themselves.<br>
<br>
He reached down and took a woman by the hands, but her skin slipped off in huge, glovelike pieces.
Then he got into the water and, though a small man, lifted several of the men and women, who were naked, into his boat. Their backs and breasts were clammy, and he remembered uneasily that the great burns he had seen during the day had been like: yellow at first, then red and swollen, with the skin sloughed off, and finally, in the evening, suppurated and smelly.<br>
<br>
With the tide risen, his bamboo pole was now too short and he had to paddle most of the way across it. On the other side, at a higher spit, he lifted the slimy living bodies out and carried them up the slope away from the tide. He had to keep consciously repeating to himself:<br>
"These are human beings. These are human beings."<br>
<br>
SDI, Asat weapons, the Midgetman, the MX missile, the Stealth bomber, nerve gas, the D-5 missile, the Trident submarine: I will cast my vote against them all.<br>
<br>
Since 1980, Mr. President, I have given more than 30 speeches during our annual consideration of this bill: 7 against nerve gas production,<br>
<br>
5 against underground testing,<br>
<br>
3 against ASAT weapons,<br>
3 against the MX missile,<br>
<br>
3 against the draft,<br>
<br>2 against SDI.<br>
The list goes on and on. But I have felt over the years like I am speaking in a vacuum; we have approved them all.<br>
<br>
And I speak in a vaccum today; my colleagues will listen politely and then vote for it all. I will feel that way too-as I have for many years now-when I cast my vote against final passage of this bill. For I too am playing on the margins.<br>
<br>
In the absence of political will-on this floor and across the country-in the absence of the kind of political will we seem to be able to muster when the Department of Defense needs another increase but not when children go hungry, anything more is impossible.<br>
<br>
Mr. President, unfortunately we only have had one President of the United States who, in my view, understood national security, national de-
fense. He was a five-star general: Dwight David Eisenhower.<br>
<br>
Mr. President, these are his words:<br>
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is hu- manity hanging from a cross of iron."<br>
<br>
This was the man who led the Allied troops in World War II; he understood war, but he also understood peace.<br>
We are kidding ourselves, Mr. President. Today we are vulnerable. The national defense of this Nation, has left us vulnerable, but not because we lack an arsenal.<br>
<br>
The vulnerability of this Nation today is that we rank at the bottom of the list in math and science, and that at least 20 million Americans cannot read or write. The vulnerability of our Nation is the deterioration and the erosion of our infrastructure, our highways, bridges, air- ports, our ports.<br>
<br>
Our vulnerability today is a nonproductive economy, noncompetitive economy. Our vulner- ability is the people who are without homes, nutrition, education, health care.<br>
<br>
Ultimately , the security of the Nation is not found in its materialism. It is found in a spirit. It is found in a strength of heart and mind. It is found in its people-we the people.<br>
<br>
We the people are vulnerable today. Let us at least be honest: we are not addressing those vulnerabilities with this bill or any other bill."<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
BIO: As a Lieutenant J. G. in the Navy, Mark Hatfield commanded landing craft in some of the bloodiest battles of World War II. He was one of the first U.S. military personnel to enter Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.<br>
<br>
These experiences, coupled with a deep religious faith and steadfast belief in the progressive principles... [and] Despite warnings of political suicide, as Oregon's Governor, Mark Hatfield cast the only vote at the 1965 National Governors Conference in opposition to a resolution supporting President Johnson's Vietnam war policy.<br>
<br>
In 1981, Senator Hatfield cast the lone vote in the Senate against enormous increases in the Department of Defense budget.<br>
<br>
Known as the father of the Nuclear Freeze, Senator Hatfield joined with Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) to force a halt to the nuclear arms race.<br>
In 1981, he sponsored the first prohibition against U.S. combat troop involvement in El Salvador and in 1984 authored the amendment which successfully deleted funds to conduct the so-called "secret war" in Nicaragua.<br>
In 1984, he was credited with single-handedly preventing renewed production of nerve gas weapons.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-79686330467247327292023-12-09T10:48:00.000-08:002023-12-09T10:50:20.074-08:003 Sons OUGHT NOT SLAUGHTER each other's families! Three Sons OUGHT No Longer Fight<br>
<br>
Disking the rock strewn<br>
Objected earth near Bet Shean,<br>
Underneath the Middle Eastern sky<br>
Rows of mean earth riven by the blades,<br>
We cut away our anger, hate, and pride,<br>
Stopping to drink, not from the liquor<br>
<br>
Of fanatic corruption but from<br>
The precious water welling up,<br>
Our oasis of Jacob'd sharing,<br>
In this Hanukkah season<br>
Of Christ's mass after<br>
Ramadan.<br>
<br>
Allah<br>
<br>
We three sons of Abraham,<br>
Muslim, Jew, and Christian,<br>
Fight the true battle<br>
Not each other but<br>
To be found worthy<br>
In compassion<br>
Giving,<br>
And purity--<br>
The true
Submission<br>
To God<br>
Over<br>
All.<br>
<br>
Selah<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
First pub. in<br>
outwardlink.net<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-37674475165935317342023-11-20T08:48:00.000-08:002023-11-20T09:10:40.736-08:00Review of The LAST CALL: RISE and FALL of PROHIBITION--1870 to 1933 by Daniel OkrentA meticiulous, highly detailed accounting of how PROHIBITION came about along with other Reform movements in during that dramatic, controversial, and tragic period of time. What odd bedfellows though.<br>
<br>
The huge effort to ban the importation, making, and using of acoholic beverages in the U.S. came about along with the Progressive era efforts at Moral Uplift by government force, for the restricing of immigration of eastern Europeans (Italians, Poles, Slavs, etc.), and Asians, Jews, and so on, many efforts to 'clean-up' corrupt government, attacks against other modern reform movements...<br>
<br>
And, weirdly, a very strong support for the Ku Klux Klan (since it also was against alcoholic drinks, Roman Catholics, Jews, Blacks... The 1920's beginning in about 1914, there was an incredible 20thc century rise of that racist organization! The KKK was strongly<br> supported by Methodists, Baptists, even some Quakers (such as a large Quaker meeting in Indiana, where the lead pastor, a woman, invited about 30 white-robed KLANSMEN to the front of the meeting house!)<br>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwS3Nk1hyphenhyphenXIy0m-xgYKwaDOI6LtVKarGZu3qbxxB8hXK7czezVDKZll1k4g7DG1mXFGIHsSZm4SiDpiK_jsiHKhVOgHPbFahunVpdvy33bzJXRE-4pYA5k8F3DqWzOYxJi60Q13XKprDDBW1heCD2vvwF5nQFmomzK3nRYAprNxT5tgzBYYVcYrF1F1bk/s1080/prohibition-in-the-states-liquor-pouring-propoganda-poster%20%281%29.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwS3Nk1hyphenhyphenXIy0m-xgYKwaDOI6LtVKarGZu3qbxxB8hXK7czezVDKZll1k4g7DG1mXFGIHsSZm4SiDpiK_jsiHKhVOgHPbFahunVpdvy33bzJXRE-4pYA5k8F3DqWzOYxJi60Q13XKprDDBW1heCD2vvwF5nQFmomzK3nRYAprNxT5tgzBYYVcYrF1F1bk/s320/prohibition-in-the-states-liquor-pouring-propoganda-poster%20%281%29.webp"/></a></div>
Of course, even President Woodrow Wilson supported Jim Crow laws! As a southener, when he came to power, he quickly SEGREGATED the Federal Government and soon violated 'freedom of speech' rights, etc.<br>
<br>
Very strange. If you want to understand how all of this could happen, read this tragic very suspenseful 60-year history, <i>The Last Call</i> by Daniel Okrent.<br>
<br>
Photos:<br>
<br>Will You Back Me Or Booze?” Propaganda Poster; with a photo of New York City Deputy Police Commissioner John A. Leach, right, watching agents pour liquor into sewer following a raid during the height of Prohibition<br>
Women’s Holy War, published by Currier & Ives, 1874, via Library of Congress, Washington D.<br>
<br>
<br>
Before settinly into weeks of intense reading, I had already known quite a bit about Prohibition.<br>
But I very quickly learned how little I actully knew of the specifics--how it came about, of why it happened, and of why it so woefully failed--the only time an admendment to the Constitution was later repealed!<br>
<br>
<br>
Another shocking
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-72128296349194619592023-11-12T10:27:00.000-08:002023-11-12T10:40:37.607-08:00Door of HOPE, Gaza Children's music video 8 years ago; Warring M.E. leaders need to stop and seek that hope Now!https://youtu.be/sBpjIyXktPw?si=2yXcXL_jFovbbrAZ
<br>
Lyrics:
"...With forgiveness and a big heart we eliminate darkness<br>
no matter how long it lasts<br>
Together we overcome hardships<br>
and the hearts are comforted with love,<br>
We light our ways with goodness,<br>
it's within us and we are the torch."<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhazqJA7lEMpgG3bJA_uFVMgU-9tsmqt4klvykEvV7U3HEKYGPcyVMyOiqWlw0fqplZPtxZUC4eKlFQKnHGczJyknUU58noQtTmLp2N6f-TUmSjzjtuxlK_Dq027XV8u4VChF3nvsFmnZvIsTqT9YA6e1l2vCj7M5Ao4t4cBkULBfUGTtLKsOdY3XHFXQc/s400/singing%20on%20beach.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhazqJA7lEMpgG3bJA_uFVMgU-9tsmqt4klvykEvV7U3HEKYGPcyVMyOiqWlw0fqplZPtxZUC4eKlFQKnHGczJyknUU58noQtTmLp2N6f-TUmSjzjtuxlK_Dq027XV8u4VChF3nvsFmnZvIsTqT9YA6e1l2vCj7M5Ao4t4cBkULBfUGTtLKsOdY3XHFXQc/s320/singing%20on%20beach.png"/></a></div>
<br>
"Inspired by the children at the Child Friendly Spaces in Gaza, the idea to compose a song and create a music video was put together in order to emphasize the importance of hope, peace and a better future for children in Palestine.<br>
<br>
Forty children from the CFSs sponsored by the Government of Germany, with the help of seven staff members, worked together on writing the lyrics, composing the music and designing the choreography for the music video. This music video is a testament to the resilience of the children in Gaza and their love for life."<br>
<br>
World Vision Gaza had to be paused because the right-wing government of Israel falsely accused the WV leader of Gaza of terrorism!<br>
<br>
World Vision has been working in the Holy Land since 1975 serving the poor and marginalized and is committed to advocating for the improved well-being of children as well as empowering Palestinian and Israeli voices that advocate for peace and justice. World Vision is currently working in Jerusalem, West Bank."<br>
http://www.wvi.org/jerusalem<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
Work in the Light of Peace, Justice, Equality, and Human Rights,
Daniel Wilcox
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-34788201277605640002023-11-11T10:34:00.010-08:002023-11-12T10:08:38.621-08:00Concerning the Crisis in Gaza and Southern Palestine-Israel--TRAGIC!
This short meditation on GAZA and Palestine-Israel was written 15 years ago during another war:-(<br>
<br>
But, here now, in the 21st century, both sides are even more extremist, more self-centered, prideful, intolerant, unjust, war-gung-ho, abusive, dismissive of civilians' lives--all in the name of orthodox Judaism and orthodox Islam or at least cultural religion...<br>
<br>
Please stand up for the True and the Compassionate when it comes to Palestine/Israel,<br>
where the slaughtering by both sides is punishing the innocent as well as the guilty.<br>
<br>
Photo of Ramallah Friends School<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhko39BMsCswsKnoh8mcl0p03RuL4R-eCP6iKJxocS3bmr8gPgzXWHNJmUqIxZMHalkFAh0pDumlgWetz-P3DxtilLwsN5qTSBbzqGIG2ZI61YxY616zqspVO0Ky9DnAwoZr92AALfUhFs_5MBOVkD23ydf20zoZGxkZCv0hbmuOqfCknQw_wdTwJ0ALnI/s701/398224115_6848919235155352_4347830221195319912_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhko39BMsCswsKnoh8mcl0p03RuL4R-eCP6iKJxocS3bmr8gPgzXWHNJmUqIxZMHalkFAh0pDumlgWetz-P3DxtilLwsN5qTSBbzqGIG2ZI61YxY616zqspVO0Ky9DnAwoZr92AALfUhFs_5MBOVkD23ydf20zoZGxkZCv0hbmuOqfCknQw_wdTwJ0ALnI/s320/398224115_6848919235155352_4347830221195319912_n.jpg"/></a></div>
Hold all people in the Light.<br>
<br>
The whole situation of Palestine/Israel in the last 150 years is so very convoluted and complicated.<br>
<br>
NO ONE has any quick answers or solutions for the extremely complex tragedy.<br>
<br>
NO HOPE IS POSSIBLE UNTIL BOTH SIDES CHOOSE to FORGIVE and agree to compromise!<br>
<br>
The ultimate irony is that both the Palestinians and the Israelis genetically come from the same ancient peoples of the region!
<br>
What divides these multi-millions of haters isn't biological but religious and political and cultural.<br>
<br>
It was tragic when I lived in Palestine/Israel in 1974, worked on a Jewish kibbutz, stayed briefly with a Palestinian Muslim family who befriended me in Nablus. And for many years since, I've followed the daily news there and read many books from the perspective of both sides.<br>
<br>
Please support some of the groups that seek to bring light and reconciliation there-- the Quaker/Friends School in Ramallah, Palestine for the last 100 years.<br>
<br>
And in the past, Christian Peacemaker Teams and Brother Andrew's involvement in bringing Jew and Palestinian Muslim together, even going to HAMAS to share his perspective with its leaders (when the government of Israel had dumped them midwinter into Lebanon years ago.<br>
<br>
Support Eli Chacour a Palestinian/Israeli Palestinian priest who shares the true, the good, the kind, the just with both warring sides. Chacour has worked with and started a school/university for all peoples of the area--Christian, Muslim, Druse, and Jew. He has also befriended seculaerists and non-theists.<br>
<br>
That is a start.<br>
<br>
Here are several books that might assist in helping everyone to better (and more historically accurate) understand the complexity, hatred, intolerance, of the area:<br>
<br>
Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh and Anthony David<br>
<br>
Blessed are the Peacemakers <br>
by the former assistant mayor<br>
of Ramallah, Audeh Rantisi who co-wrote it along with Ralph Beebe of George Fox University and Northwest Yearly Meeting.<br>
<br>
Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour<br>
We Belong to the Land by Elias Chacour<br>
<br>
Chacour's father, a Palestinian Christian said that they needed to love<br>
the Jews (when the Jews were escaping lethal violence in Russia and Europe to the M.E.).<br>
<br>
Yet later<br>
the Israeli army kidnapped him and Chacour's brother<br>
and dumped them in a foreign country.<br>
<br>
Then the Israeli Army blew up<br>
their Palestinian Catholic church and drove all of the Palestinians<br>
out of their homes and town.<br>
<br>
The Israeli government has never allowed Chacour and other Palestinians to come back to their home.<br>
<br>
Yet Chacour still shows love to the Jewish people, and to Muslims, Druze, and all others.<br>
<br>
Sounds like the "Lamb's War--a war of love, justice, and peace!
--the only war worth having.<br>
<br>
Peace in the LIGHT--the Caring, the Good, the True, the Just,<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/<br>
<br>
<br>Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-11865324495289112792023-11-09T14:15:00.006-08:002024-01-04T16:21:21.744-08:00selah river: Poems of reflection, remembrance, transcendence"I've known rivers...my soul has grown deep like the rivers."* Langston Hughes<br>
<br>
Yes, travel rivers of the world<br>
and rivers of the soul<br>
and rivers of the mind.<br>
<br>
Selah.<br>
<br>
<br>
Presence transcends<br>
<br>
Drowned in family tragedy, despairing, distraught--<br>
that morning earlier;<br>
thus down encumbered,<br>
he came to Quaker meeting, but not speaking<br>
of his family’s severe circumstance, kept hidden;<br>
<br>
But in the midst<br>
of open expectant communion, Transcendent Light<br>
shown forth in a stranger’s sudden<br>
a cappella spiritual chorus--<br>
a deep songing deepening within;<br>
intense meaning lifted us gathered in communion--<br>
vivid encouraging Hope;<br>
<br>
That sacred chorus didn’t take away our shattered glass<br>
lives, nor end many distraught<br>
circumstances and tragedies--<br>
but<br>
Oh, what Hope fulled within.<br>
<br>
--Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
a beachcomber of Beauty<br>
<br>
a why-ing kid<br>
up<br>
with go-vision eyes stretching and out,<br>
rambling<br>
meandering rocky-rubble farm roads<br>
and roaming over creeks, through timber strands,<br>
brief forest, and out across pasture lands--<br>
<br>
I discovered beautiful bits and lumps that matter<br>
--pebbles, stones, and rocks<br>
(especially when wet)<br>
and odd ugly ones, to boot<br>
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on fun nature hikes<br>
wide-eyed adventures--<br>
outside of our minor village<br>
in 50’s southeast Nebraska;<br>
<br>
Put those bright objects, small hunks, in my pockets<br>
where they lay heavy<br>
or in my overloaded baggish hands,<br>
carrying them home,<br>
my free treasures of early/pre-youth<br>
<br>
enlarging my throng of wonder<br>
in my pine-walled basement room--<br>
Yes, I became a rock-mongrel mutt;<br>
<br>
And later found others, mostly bits of minerals,<br>
my boyhood keepers<br>
in the Black Hills, Rockies, Sierras,<br>
and a small chunk of copper ore<br>
from an open pit mine in Bisbee, Arizona,<br>
<br>
and a few parched white bones from<br>
a long-ago bison jump<br>
near Lame Dear, Montana.<br>
<br>
I became a boarder of pebbles, quartzes, feldspars, agates,<br>
granite bits, and mica, sea-glass, iron pirate,<br>
and who-know unknowns,<br>
and fascinating shells and other sea life from 3 coasts--<br>
<br>
a life-long beachcomber of minor Beauty,<br>
a voyager through this washed-up-n-down of life,<br>
Adrift explorer, searcher, curious wanderer.<br>
<br>
But now in receding elder age, mutated<br>
by a stroke of bad luck,<br>
I hesitently hobble about with a rolling walker alone<br>
along Pismo sand dunes and Morro Rock shores<br>
still searching, seeking for more special riff-raff,<br>
to add to my ‘treasured things,’<br>
our rooms’ shelves;<br>
<br>
Here they still lay waiting<br>
inert for another<br>
I/It encounter...<br>
<br>
Oh, the aesthetic depth of minor things,<br>
bits that matter which sometime<br>
transcend<br>
into present<br>
WONDER!<br>
<br>
Yes, objects of beauty that exist in Deep Time...<br>
<br>
In not too many years,<br>
I will leave them behind;<br>
and those long-enduring things will<br>
exist others of the future.<br>
<br>
And this long rumination of my life-long collections<br>
Reminds me of a pebbled thought of beauty for present living--<br>
<br>
We humans get washed up<br>
on this shore of existence,<br>
surrounded and crowded<br>
<br>
by things and circumstances<br>
we didn’t choose--<br>
<br>
We all get roughed down and polished by adversity…<br>
<br>
But the wonder of our human brain’s neural plasticity--<br>
is we all get to choose<br>
how we respond to life’s circumstances,<br>
harsh trials, and horrific tragedies--<br>
<br>
Yes, until our death, we get to create anew<br>
Each moment,<br>
If only briefly<br>
--<br>
Conclusion:<br>
What has washed up on your shore today?<br>
What beautiful pebbled moment of wonder?<br>
Or what irritant, ache, troubling circumstance, or tragedy<br>
has gotten lodged in your<br>
oyster mind and heart?<br>
<br>
What can you do to turn this troubled moment into a precious<br>
gem/pebble/stone/agate?<br>
<br>
-Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Awake at dawn<br>
<br>
upending my camping mug<br>
for a drink,<br>
at dawn,<br>
but no water slurp;<br>
almost empty--<br>
<br>
except for a gray web’s net<br>
rim to rim;<br>
below, a dark spider<br>
silent dwelling<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
Retreaded, not yet board and carded<br>
<br>
I’m retreaded but road-tired,<br>
Rolling across cantankerous land<br>
Though, thank heavens—knock around<br>
On pavement<br>
And redwood,<br>
Not yet sent off to a ‘board and card’ mansion,<br>
Rehearsing...<br>
<br>
You know where decks and bingo<br>
“Was a dog…” chips or<br>
Markers<br>
Define the tokened measures of your/our life--<br>
<br>
Or where, too<br>
Reclining and breathing entertain you/us.<br>
<br>
Or tipped-wobbly with 4-wheels and unfeeling-ed feet<br>
I walker along the wet sand at Morro Strand beach<br>
Staggering in wonder at this breathtaking coast...<br>
Here<br>
Until my brief spark of awed experience embers out<br>
<br>
Gone...<br>
<br>
Yet<br>
Reality Ultimately<br>
Transcendent<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
Meditation on Shimmering Palms<br>
<br>
On more days and nights, an invalid,<br>
In pain and loss, I often just want to go...<br>
Unconscious;<br>
But then, again, I stare out<br>
To the wind and sun<br>
From our upstairs<br>
Window;<br>
<br>
There tower above, 2 lone palms<br>
In sight from my weak haven,<br>
Swaying in that blue expanse<br>
In a lively coastal wind,<br>
Their mop-tops of slender fronds<br>
Shimmering<br>
Like flashing magnesium flares<br>
From brilliant reflecting<br>
Sunshine.<br>
<br>
Those two undulating sentinels dance<br>
over/above my fading consciousness,<br>
Ailing awareness--<br>
A duo/two unconscious guards,<br>
While I lay here filled with sacred<br>
Remembrance, mindful<br>
Of my former festive living,<br>
Becoming, and doing….<br>
<br>
Yes, the wonder of being a human primate<br>
Living, but finite, so brief, and this<br>
Gift, this Present<br>
Shimmering--<br>
Then we’re gone.<br>
<br>
-Dan Wilcox,<br>
--<br>
<br>
FLOATERS--a poetic reflection on autumn and life<br>
<br>
I’m spent to despair,<br>
For lost hope yearning,<br>
Tried for years to rescue others<br>
Caught in tangled news hours<br>
Of hellish hate, intolerance, despair,<br>
<br>
Wrong right-leftist spinners,<br>
Those creedalists and secularists<br>
Both deniers of the morally real--<br>
Their abyss of modern sheol winter<br>
Stop!<br>
Abandon this somber cellared lament!<br>
<br>
Instead,<br>
My sweetheart suggests, Let’s visit<br>
A coastal winery,<br>
Say, I do,<br>
We do.<br>
<br>
Driving along a winding river valley,<br>
We arrive, expectant,<br>
Hoping for respite;<br>
Then, listening to soft music,<br>
Sipping small glasses of moscato and merlot<br>
<br>
Enjoying a glad lackadaisical day,<br>
Mellow and casual,<br>
Light of heart,<br>
Carefree, contented<br>
In California’s autumn’s wonder<br>
Below tall sycamores and elms;<br>
<br>
After Thanksgiving before winter;<br>
We bask in 86-degree warmth,<br>
When unexpectedly a slightly curled<br>
Leaf floats down before<br>
My eyes,<br>
And lands gently on my lap,<br>
A died wonder for us to behold;<br>
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<br>
Then another drifter<br>
Lets go from a large limb above,<br>
A deep rust-brown leaf spattered<br>
With light tan highlights and vein-lines,<br>
Descends in front of us,<br>
<br>
Swaying back and forth,<br>
Languid,<br>
Lightly<br>
Floating down<br>
Inches away from us,<br>
Landing nearby<br>
On the lawn;<br>
<br>
I lay with my head way back,<br>
Gazing up to the sky's azure blue,<br>
As other gifts let go every few moments<br>
From high above,<br>
Swinging wide and gentle,<br>
<br>
Falling beauty in slow motion,<br>
Floating, swaying;<br>
I realize—here, now--<br>
With this Present--<br>
I could die free, released.<br>
<br>
-Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Color Me Fiery Intense Red<br>
<br>
As a kid, expressive, creative, rambunctious,<br>
something of a wild card<br>
long into adulthood<br>
I loved vibrant Green--<br>
for abundant life, for exuberant energy, vividly alive<br>
for beauty like in colors, emerald or jade,<br>
for the natural world from creek to patch of woods<br>
behind our house on the edge of Adams village,<br>
to verdant forest green glens of the Sierras, Sequoia and Yosemite<br>
<br>
But--<br>
then, suddenly, unexpectedly, without conscious why;<br>
spontaneous, impulsively one day in middle life,<br>
I awoke<br>
not liking green anymore...<br>
viewing green instead as dull, insipid,
sickening, repetitious, odd,
over-done, humdrum...<br>
<br>
Color me instead--RED riveting, intense, striking sparks of light<br>
cardinal, crimson, scarlet burst into my eyes and consciousness<br>
—passionate, dazzling, blazing, heated, different...<br>
<br>
as in exploding firework sky rockets,<br>
as pulsing red coals in a bonfire,<br>
as an amazing psychedelic quilt by my sweetheart<br>
like an Impressionistic painting, luminous in our house<br>
to ruby red lava in Hawaii’s volcano,<br>
intense sunsets, and Utah’s red rock<br>
<br>
RED forever<br>
<br>
--Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
A Psalm of Late Life<br>
<br>
Pessimist of my oldering years<br>
Preyed upon by lamentable loss<br>
I find no balmy psalms to lyre<br>
But after discovered liars<br>
Only this harp<br>
of yawps and howls,<br>
I pray for transcendence,<br>
This my modern yelled holler<br>
My psalm of life end's exit<br>
Dance in this sorrowing starred night<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
bidingTimeabiding<br>
<br>
bite my teeth on famous lines<br>
a hole lot of fragmented shells;<br>
hunger hollows within--<br>
deepening abyss<br>
of lost longing<br>
lone-ranging, reigning the distance<br>
of a round heartless night<br>
<br>
of a round heart-last light<br>
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance<br>
of last longing<br>
steepening a-bless<br>
fulness hallows within--<br>
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;<br>
bide my heart on famous lines<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
a time for…<br>
<br>
in the fall a time for springing<br>
childhood,<br>
festivals of Monet-splashed leaves<br>
that my sister and I raked and piled high<br>
in the deep ditch in front<br>
and jumped down into,<br>
<br>
and our large garden behind the parsonage<br>
with pumpkins, melons, and withered corn rows...<br>
and lightning bugs on the wane,<br>
flashing on and off<br>
<br>
full of fall...<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
bolder utah<br>
<br>
utah boulders,<br>
eye widening rock<br>
pastels bold in harvest's sun--<br>
basalt garden wonder<br>
--<br>
<br>
<br>
at the park's bat box<br>
<br>
my grandson scooping up handfuls<br>
of dust<br>
and swinging it loose--<br>
fogged clouds<br>
lighted by sunshine<br>
that disperse<br>
back to cleated ground<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
gull wings<br>
<br>
gull wings<br>
lightly spraying over gray clod fields<br>
6-year drought--<br>
so 'irrigating'!<br>
<br>
--<br>
Experience the awe-widened beauty of the Columbia Gorge:<br>
<br>
MORNING GLORY<br>
<br>
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/10/morning-glory.html<br>
--<br>
<br>
Want to be conundrummed? Live in the starbacked night?<br>
Visit Clockwise Cat Poetry Magazine: Klox and Katz Ink Issue, for my two new poems:<br>
conundrumming<br>
Starbacked<br>
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/59489337/klox-and-katz-ink<br>
<br>
Check out a brief poem on summer gloom, a haiku at vox poetica:<br>
http://voxpoetica.com/dripping-rain-drizzles/<br>
<br>
Then leave sorrow and war and memory behind. Journey love and romance in "Moon River" at Poetry Pacific.<br>
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html<br>
<br>
Need a little bit of humor in the midst of so much human tragedy and political chaos?<br>
Try "The Pullout Coyote" at the fine poetry magazine, vox poetica.<br>
A true but funny poetic story of our encounter with a wild critter in Yosemite last year.<br>
http://voxpoetica.com/pull-out-coyote/<br>
-<br>
<br>
For Daniel's previously published writing visit http://www.psalmsyawpshowls.com/<br>
Also, check out his new speculative novel, The Feeling of the Earth.<br>
<br>
Get caught up in the joys, trials, and tribulations of 3 alienologists who warp into our solar system in 1842.<br>
They become deeply involved and a mutation occurs in the human species. Journey through the years with them to 2074!<br>
Available now at Barnes Noble, local bookstores, libraries, and Amazon.<br>
<br>
Deal with the moving film over your eyes in "Film Over Our Eyes."<br>
Is it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a poem....?<br>
<br>
Experience Hollywood's wild ire, the roller-coaster excess of youth,<br>
growing up fundamentalist Baptist, all that rollicking rock crazy Oz of the 60's, and Life itself.<br>
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/11/film-over-our-eyes.html<br>
<br>
There are 3 collections of Daniel's published poems,<br>
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls,<br>
Dark Energy<br>
and selah river.<br>
All 3 areavailable at Amazon, Barnes Noble, local bookstores, and coffee shops.<br>
For Daniel's speculative writing, futuristic poems and stories warp over to<br>
http://lastthings.weebly.com/.<br>
<br>
Other websites include<br>
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com<br>
http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/<br>
<br>
<br>
Do a Google sleuth and find washed up pieces of his poetic driftwood on the vast shores of the Internet.<br>
<br>
His wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices,
The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine,hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot,<br>
and<br>
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.<br>
<br>
Photographs by Dan and Betsy Wilcox<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-27096483342762953432023-10-31T08:00:00.011-07:002023-10-31T08:45:19.153-07:00CAT DAY--our master, the SPHINX who lords it over us; and now, just in time for ALL HALLOWS EVEN, another one, POE!On a sad day over 2 years ago, Smoke, our past stray master, suddenly, took grievously ill and died.<br>
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Being the subservient humans that we are, we diligenty searched animal sheters to find a new master, but then out of the river bed near our house on the coast of California,<br>
(where we sometimes spot opossums, a raccoon or lost dog, even a coyote),<br>
the SPHINX arrived and sat, day after after day, attentively out in our yard with paws out front, watching us (like his namesake, the SPHINX of ancient Egypt, where cats first ruled).<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
NOW ENTER, this autumn, a new stray, black as pitch, POE, just in time for ALL HALLOWS EVEN.<br>
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<br>
Pic from Silky Sally Friends For Life Animal Rescue<br>
<br>
May the Great Pumpkin bring you a new lord to order you around at this hallowed time of year;-).<br>
How CATastrophic your evening could be.<br>
<br>
<br>
You may even want to go online and read, "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-20366140712718117042023-10-19T10:12:00.008-07:002023-10-20T07:28:38.799-07:00BRIEF HISTORIC explanation of CAUSES of current HORRORS in PALESTINE-ISRAELWHO’S to BLAME for murderous crises in PALESTINE-ISRAEL this month?<br>
(in half a page! based on extensive histories by JEWISH and other historians)<br>
<br>
1. The CORRUPT-INTOLERANT Ottoman Empire<br>
2. The BRITISH AND FRENCH GOVERNMENTS—especially the BRITISH WHO IN 1917 PROMISED 2 COMPLETLEY DIFFERENT, CONTRARY GROUPS OF PEOPLE—JEWS and ARABS,<br>
the SAME PIECE of LAND that the British had liberated from the Turks, ending the Ottoman Empire.!<br>
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PHOTO of Hamas MURDERER by Hamas of its attacks on social media. Photo: Israel Defence Forces via AP<br>
<br>
3. The intolerant, anti-democratic, raiding MUSLIM PALESTINIANS who often ATTACKED and MURDERED INNOCENT JEWISH CIVILIANS beginning in the late 1800’s!<br>
<br>
4. THE IMMIGRANT—often illegal refugee JEWS (from Russia, Germany, etc.) WHO FROM THE BEGINNING in ABOUT 1915 WROTE that THEY PLANNED to EXPEL ALL PALESTINIANS, and TAKE ALL THEIR LANDS for EUROPEAN JEWS.<br>
<br>
5. The RIOTING MUSLIN PALESTINIANS WHO in the 1920’s and 30’s again MURDERED many INNOCENT JEWISH CIVILIANS (even Jews whose FAMILES had lived in Palestine for many centuries)!<br>
<br>
6. The JEWISH TERRORISTS such as the IRGUN WHO in the 1930’s and 40’s bombed INNOCENT PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS and murdered British soldiers including their infamous BOMBING of the KING DAVID HOTEL in the 1940’s.<br>
<br>
7. The CURRENT EXTREMIST ISRAELI GOVERNMENT WHO REGULARLY STEALS LAND, WATER, etc. from poor Palestinians, CUTS DOWN THEIR ORCHARDS, as DID the ISRAELI MILITARY of a CHRISTIAN PALESTNIAN FAMILY’S ORCHARD even though that family has owned their land since back when only about 5% of PALESTINE-ISRAEL was JEWISH!<br>
<br>
And the EXTREMIST ISRAELI GOVERNMENT supports INTOLERANT, RAMPAGING EXTREMIST JEWISH SETTLERS when they torch innocent PALESTINIANS’ CARS, DAMAGE THEIR HOMES, CUT DOWN THEIR OLIVE TREES:_(((<br>
<br>
8. INTOLERANT, anti-democratic MUSLIM HAMAS who constantly HAS INTENTIONALLY MURDERED MANY THOUSANDS of INNOCENT JEWISH CIVILIANS, even murdered their own Palestinian people!<br>
<br>
WHAT IS the SOLUTION to this HORRIFIC TRAGEDY?<br>
<br>
NO ONE KNOWS, just like no one knows what to do about the millions of refugees who now are without a home in the world today!<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-63928767046637027282023-10-10T17:27:00.004-07:002023-10-10T17:28:43.037-07:00Guest Post: Fairly Objective Overview of the Tragic History of Palestinians and IsraelisHere is a fairly objective overview of the tragic history of Israelis and Palestinians in the last 120 years. It summarizes well the many, many books on that history.<br>
<br>
FROM ALJAZEERA:<br>
<br>
"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced many millions of people and has its roots in a colonial act carried out more than a century ago.<br>
<br>
With Israel declaring war on the Gaza Strip after an unprecedented attack by the armed Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday, the world’s eyes are again sharply focused on what might come next.<br>
<br>
Hamas fighters have killed more than 800 Israelis in assaults on multiple towns in southern Israel. In response, Israel has launched a bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 500 Palestinians. It has mobilised troops along the Gaza border, apparently in preparation for a ground attack. And on Monday, it announced a “total blockade” of the Gaza Strip, stopping the supply of food, fuel and other essential commodities to the already besieged enclave in an act that under international law amounts to a war crime.<br>
But what unfolds in the coming days and weeks has its seed in history.<br>
<br>
For decades, Western media outlets, academics, military experts and world leaders have described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as intractable, complicated and deadlocked.<br>
<br>
Here’s a simple guide to break down one of the world’s longest-running conflicts:<br>
<br>
What was the Balfour Declaration?"<br>
<br>
CONTINUE at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/9/whats-the-israel-palestine-conflict-about-a-simple-guide<br>
<br>
Please hold the Israelis and the Palestinians in the Light.<br>
<br>
Do what you can to help people see the real facts about this historic tragedy.<br>
<br>
NOT the twisted and distorted ideological claims by both sides!<br>
<br>
And support organizations that work for peace in Palestine-Israel such as Ramallah Friends School.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-1811600031783976812023-10-09T10:18:00.003-07:002023-10-09T10:18:57.971-07:00BLOOD BROTHERS: Christian Palestinian-Israeli Memoir by Elas Chacour<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-JulkOLxvBslvxq7Hvn70lWCaLBkomyObU-BGMVDG-KzgHEaqEfee92H4sVHpc5-f0qD12IVxkbYJt0Xh4GvDihreHXAYaDERBWpBs1uujVMMMHPKSXzt6CM2VT1dWQ0Og88W86vkfLe4eub0GPHfScUuNDLb38xh51sSxPbbWWhPd1Od1NSaMCCEL4/s500/514LFvxWHnL.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-JulkOLxvBslvxq7Hvn70lWCaLBkomyObU-BGMVDG-KzgHEaqEfee92H4sVHpc5-f0qD12IVxkbYJt0Xh4GvDihreHXAYaDERBWpBs1uujVMMMHPKSXzt6CM2VT1dWQ0Og88W86vkfLe4eub0GPHfScUuNDLb38xh51sSxPbbWWhPd1Od1NSaMCCEL4/s400/514LFvxWHnL.jpg"/></a></div>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-76683396774530078952023-09-08T12:22:00.004-07:002023-09-08T13:20:40.970-07:00The LADY in the GARDEN
On a picture-post-card date near the swirling<br>
Serpentine sway of the wide Schuylkill River<br>
Meandering through Central Philly's park garden,<br>
<br>
Towered over by leaning elms, while 3 long canoes<br>
Swift by to the paddling of Ivy League rowers.<br>
Gazing at my dear partner in this verdant garden;<br>
<br>
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<br>
My Friendly girl, Karen--ebony caped-round<br>
In waist-length hair like a swaying black cloak--<br>
She's an aspiring concert violinist and rights activist;<br>
<br>
Vivid in her red chambray shirt and Levis, she<br>
Converses intensely of King's D.C. March in 3 weeks,<br>
Me listening intently to my companion in the garden.<br>
<br>
I, the drafted conscientious objector, work for Uncle Sam<br>
With forsaken kids confined to sterile mental wards,<br>
Disturbed by parents' wrong living; but still am<br>
<br>
So youthfully focused on my comely girlfriend’s<br>
Figured shape more than humanity’s ship of state.<br>
A warm date with my dear companion in the garden.<br>
<br>
We sit cross-legged on a wide lush parkway green,<br>
Getting ready to munch our carefully bagged meal<br>
Of 2 peanut butter and grape sandwiches,<br>
<br>
Yet we discuss war’s ravages in far-off Nam<br>
And Bob Dylan's 'hard rained' croons.<br>
Loving my dear concerned friend in the garden<br>
<br>
But then I inhale a fuming putrid odor;<br>
Twist my neck and see this bagged lady in a filthy rag<br>
Of a dress lunging slowly forward, hanging<br>
<br>
Onto her trashy mesh of a shopping bag, her rancid<br>
Stench to high heaven wafts, and I pinch my nose;<br>
Turn back to Karen, not this intruder in the garden.<br>
<br>
But lo and hold--my violinist, instead, rises<br>
And welcomes the old hag, “Hi Lady, will you join us<br>
For our little Sunday snack here in the warm sun?”<br>
<br>
The homeless stranger sprawls haggardly on our grass,<br>
Her grimy shift wrinkling on her scraggly legs.<br>
Karen gazes warmly at this unknown one in the garden<br>
<br>
I'm all upside-down in my face as this invader,<br>
Reaches out her grubby hand to our blanket,<br>
Grabs one of our 2 sandwiches, and half crams<br>
<br>
It in her narrow jaws, chews open-mouthed and teethed,<br>
While I fume, separated from my date<br>
By this chomping vagrant in our parked garden.<br>
<br>
But then I awake, remembering almost too late,<br>
The very deep story about the least of these; I turn,<br>
And finally join my dear musician's caring psalm,<br>
<br>
We now communing 3 of human kind,<br>
Under these verdant swaying trees of warmth.<br>
Sharing friends,--in this present park garden.<br>
<br>
<br>
--Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
First pub. in The Oak Bend Review<br>
in different form;<br>
in Selah River, a collection of Daniel's<br>
published poetry,<br>
And before, in Dark Energy, a book of poems by Daniel<br>
published by Diminuendo Press<br>
<br>
<br>
In the LIGHT,<br>
<br>
Dan Wilcox<br>
<br>
<br>
Daniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-59544336184709078272023-09-03T13:20:00.009-07:002023-09-04T06:50:08.640-07:00My Lifestance--in brief-: a Transcendence SeekerA TRANSCENDENCE SEEKER, living for Moral Realism--<br>
the True, the Just, the Caring.<br>
Living for Jesus' moral truths in the Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5:22...<br>
<br>
Living in the worldview of Liberal Quakerism (within the movement, not so much the organization),<br>
especially communing with others in expectant openness and hope and peacemaking;<br>
oppose violence of speech and action.<br>
<br>
In philosophical speculation, probably Process Deism;<br>
<br>
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In method of living, the primacy of reason and the scientific method;<br>
and a focus on individual creativity in literature, the arts, and technology<br>
<br>
in politics, leftist with libertarian leanings;<br>
in economics, free enterprise, though with very strong social caring and practical help for impoverished,<br>
dysfunctional, troubled, lost, etc.;<br>
<br>
In government, voting democracy, (not electoral college). <br>
Require meticulous honesty, moral leaders who while standing strong for the good and just,<br>
also seek to work across political divides with opposing leaders of opposite parties;<br>
<br>
In society, equality (not equity), consensus; generosity; creativity;<br>
Avid support for human rights, "I Have a Dream" integration and reconciliation;
<br>
Very strong support for Monogamous marriage, the Nuclear family<br>
including support for same sexual marriage for gay and lesbian couples;<br>
<br>
Opposition to ideological falsehoods and social contagions including Trans and Nonbinary delusions--and their denial of the biological reality of the binary nature of human sexuality. Over 98% of humans are born either boy or girl.<br>
Help those tiny percentage of humans who are born with physical errors such as intersex or who have illusionary feelings contrary to actual facts.<br>
<br>
Against PRIDE Parades that glorify sleazy and immoral sexual behavior, <br>
Drag Queens that demean actual women, harm the innocence of children, etc.<br>
LGBTQ+ Propaganda and flags, promiscuity, kink sexuality, polyamory;<br>
<br>
Opposed to the twisting of language such as the claim that a human can decide whether or not to be a man or a woman,<br> and that sex is "assigned at birth." <br>
Of course that is an Orwellian falsehood. Infants aren't "assigned at birth." Baby humans come out of our mother's womb either boy or girl. And that actual fact is written down.<br>
<br>
Against Trumpism, Augustinian-Reformed Christianity, Marxism, CRT (that distorts actual history), BLM (that is against the nuclear family and falsely blames whole groups of humans,and makes false claims of "systemic racism" in contemporary society). Of course, there have been cases of systemic racism such as segregation, "Jim Crow," Sun-down Towns, Apartheid, etc. And BLM attacks all police officers as racists, even though most officers are fair, just, and against racism.<br>
<br>
<br>
To be continued...<br>
<br>
In the LIGHT,<br>
<br>
Dan WilcoxDaniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1769727944915511936.post-22162790155474184532023-08-31T10:58:00.006-07:002023-08-31T12:31:19.594-07:00WHY WE HUMANS NEED to RETURN to BIOLOGICAL FACTS about HUMAN SEXUALITY and DISMISS "social constructs" such as GenderDISMISS the ideological, fallacious term, “GENDER”—when it conflicts with the actual biology of infants born either girl or boy.<br>
Most, if not all, "social constructs" are immoral, contrary to facts, and often very harmful to humans.<br>
Note that “gender” isn’t an actual fact of human biology, but a “social construct” of various societies.<br>
"the male sex or the female sex, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones, or one of a range of other identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.<br>
"the singer has opted to keep the names and genders of her twins private"<br>
https://www.google.com/search?q=gender%20definition...<br>
-<br>
"Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other.<br>
World Heath Organization<br>
https://www.google.com/search?q=gender%20definition...<br>
<br>
Trans--Drag Queen--Daytona [2nd part obscene]
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-<br>
"Gender can be broadly defined as a multidimensional construct that encompasses gender identity and expression, as well as social and cultural expectations about status, characteristics, and behavior as they are associated with certain sex traits.<br>
National Institute of Health<br>
-<br>
"All humans are born with biological characteristics of sex, either male, female, or intersex. Gender, however, is a social construct and generally based on the norms, behaviors, and societal roles expected of individuals based primarily on their sex.<br>
Psychology Today<br>
-<br>
"Who was the first to define gender?<br>
Sexologist John Money<br>
The term gender had been associated with grammar for most of history and only started to move towards it being a malleable cultural construct in the 1950s and 1960s. Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955.<br>
Enyclopedia.pub<br>
-<br>
"Since the 1990s, Money's work and research has been subject to significant academic and public scrutiny.[7] A 1997 academic study criticized Money's work in many respects, particularly in regard to the involuntary sex-reassignment of the child David Reimer, and Money's sexual abuse of Reimer and his twin brother when they were children.[8][9] Some of Money's sessions involved Money forcing the two children to perform sexual activities with each other, which Money then photographed. David Reimer lived a troubled life, eventually committing suicide at 38; his brother died of an overdose at age 36.[10][11]<br>
Wikipedia<br>
<br>
<br>
ln the LIGHT of the TRUE, GOOD, AND JUST,<br>
<br>
Dan WilcoxDaniel Wilcoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05178375087492786696noreply@blogger.com0