Afghan Drone Attack--The Road to Elsewhere

Are you feeling like Vonnegut after the debacle'd news of the last few months?
Here's a poem by me to chew on:

The Road to Elsewhere

Gehenna…
The highway to ‘hail,
Hail Afghans all here,’

(“Give me your ears…”)
Is paved with good intentions and ‘IUO’s.’
On that yellow ‘book’ road, quran
Tell tales-where-banned
Men of lairs acclaim allah’s offense…

Come out of your pious lores, you liars.
But over here, we’re First,
We’re all so right, “god’s man”
Christ-ones
Of the west wind

Our shocked awe amazes
18 years of twistered god-centered war
“only a little more…”
every precedence tells,
rankly wrong
(“You, too …’brutal’?”)

We’re not in Kansas
No more, morals, nor never were. Was?
A last ‘stand’ stammering
In that season—us dogs of Mars and a sheep’s head,
Let’s make pieces with the Muslims,
More mothers slump to that deserted bleeding ground.*
Balmed for All...

Uh…
Can't we humans get a heart?
--

Work for peace,
Dan Wilcox
First pub. Fish Food magazine

What to DO about "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore"?

From Network movie on media: “I don't know what to do about…the Russians and [Syria, Afghanistan, illegal aliens, etc.]
“All I know is that first you've got to get mad. [shouting] You've got to say: 'I'm a human being…
But first, get up out of your chairs,
open the window,
stick your head out,
and yell...

I'M AS MAD AS HELL,
AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE
THIS
ANYMORE!”






https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Network



For the last few years, especially in politics and religion, life has become so troubling, with even more wrong and unethical speeches, actions, and behavior by conservatives and liberals.

I’ve alternated between a sense of hopelessness and my commitment to the Good no matter what, but this last few weeks,

with the reality show of the American government getting much worse, even its defending freedom-denying Saudi Arabia's persecutions, ruthless murder and bombings, all the constant uncivilly by Republicans and Democrats, the endless falsehoods....

I feel like—without the name-calling, demeaning, bullying and lying—going to my window here on the central coast of California and YELLING, "I'm as mad as hell...

HOWEVER, while that scream might relieve some of my angst, anger against injustice and selfishness of Americans, and anger against horrific religious and non-religious beliefs, etc., it wouldn't solve any of the seemingly endless wrongs being committed.

What solutions do you have to overcome this many headed-hydra debacle of the 21st century?

HERE'S MY PLAN OF ACTION (after I rant and rave against all the WRONGS, ALL THE INJUSTICE, ALL THE ARROGANCE, SELFISHNESS...)

1. Write another email for Amnesty International for a prisoner of conscience.

2. Vote for CIVIL political leaders to replace the mess.

3. Offer LIFE-STANCE alternatives to the horrors of creedal Christianity, Islam, etc.

4. Continue to support outreach organizations such as World Vision, MCC, Habitat for Humanity, etc.
which make practical real-life differences to individual humans suffering from impoverishment, injustice,
inequality, lack of clean water, and so forth.

5. Urge more people to read Enlightenment Now by psychologist Steven Pinker, and other books supporting reason, compassion moral realism, altruism, equality, human rights, and justice.

6. Write more articles, poems, and fiction for Goodness' sake.

7. Continue to search for a local group which works for human flourishing and the wonder of God.

8. Seek new ways to live a true life.

9. Keep in mind the wise words of Howard Zinn (and others) when we continue to face immorality and injustice year after year:
"TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

"What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives…If we remember those times and places…where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
--Howard Zinn

"I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.
--Martin Luther King Jr.

"True religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart does love and reverence God the Creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness...I found no narrowness respecting sects and opinions, but believed that sincere, upright-hearted people, in every society, who truly love God, were accepted of him.
--John Woolman

10.


In the Light of Truth, Goodness, and Civility,

Daniel Wilcox

Stand Against This: U.S. Is Bombing Again, and Supporting Saudi Arabian Bombing

The U.S. is bombing again. Now we are bombing in 7 different countries,
and supporting oppressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia which is also bombing civilians in Yemen!

Yet notice we haven't bombed Saudi Arabia!!!!

Plus, we are supporting Muslim jihadists who have killed many civilians, and we are trying to overthrow another government.

Remember we overthrew the governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc.

BUT WE HAD NO MAJOR PLAN OF HOW TO CHANGE THEM.

So we let Muslim extremists wreck havoc in these countries for years, and more and more civilians suffer!

Millions are wounded and hundreds of thousands die.

Where is our plan?

Where is our commitment to human rights?

When is the U.S. going to learn?

When we overthrew the Nazis we didn't let them continue to rule and to oppress.

Why are we letting Muslims continue to rule and oppress in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.?

Does this make any sense?

No.

Is it morally right?

No.


Stand up against this slaughter by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, HAMAS, Fatah, and most Muslims in other countries.

Stand for the LIGHT, in this "ocean of darkness."

Daniel Wilcox

bidingTimeabiding

bidingTimeabiding

bite my teeth on famous lines
a hole lot of fragmented shells;
hunger hollows within--
deepening abyss
of lost longing
lone-ranging, reigning the distance
of a round heartless night

of a round heart-last light
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance
of last longing
steepening a-bless
wonder hallows within--
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;
bide my heart on famous lines


--Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in Dead Snakes

--

The Road to Elsewhere

The highway to ‘hail,
Hail Afghans all here,’

(“Give me your ears…”)

Is paved with good intentions and ‘IUO’s.’
On that yellow ‘book’ road, tell tales-where-banned

Men of lairs acclaim executive offense…
Come out of your pious lores, you liars.
But we’re all so right, we over weird, of the west wind…

Our shocked awe amazes
(“You, too …’brutal’?”)

We’re not in Kansas
Anymore, nor never were. Was?

A last ‘stand’ stammering
In that season--the dogs of Mars and a sheep’s head,

She slumps to the bleeding ground.*
Shot for All...
Uh…
Can't we get a heart?


*Another woman executed by the Taliban

--Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in Fish Food Magazine, November 2014

--



The Last Libation

Jim Town, across the county line
Where many a poor Cheyenne
Emptied his dim future
In the short, sotted glass;

Nothing new of this watery fire,
The forked-tongue libation
Passed from the pallid men
Down to generations of the lost,

To those hunched at the rail-
Descendants of red men who
Counted coup with shining valor-
But these instead pour out their soul'd

Lives to Chief Bacchus of the bottle;
Restricted to behind the dark bars,
They shuffle the time worn cards,
Then slump, no longer ruling the plains.

But the Rez’s young girl, his cousin,
Only 12, copper-templed and kind,
With glorious raven hair, now
In the gathering Montana dusk

Tips on the dirt walk, sour breathed,
Staggers on the ‘warn’ path
Through Lame Deer town,
And passes down, then gone.

Says another tribe’s brave,
A leader in translation,
My heart is sick…

I will drink no more forever.

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Native Americans
Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it ("Thunder traveling to higher areas")







--Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in Sentinel Poetry Online, United Kingdom

--


Retreaded

I’m retreaded but road-tired,
Rolling across cantankerous land
Though, thank heavens—knock around
On pavement
And redwood,
Not yet sent off to a ‘board and card’ mansion,
Rehearsing…

You know where decks and bingo
"Was a dog..." chips or
Markers
Define the tokened measures of your life--

Or where
Reclining and breathing entertain you.

No, I’m bound for that promised land...



--Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in Poetry Pacific, Canada

Brief Bio: Daniel's wandering lines have appeared in many magazines in the United States, Canada, and overseas including Contemporary American Voices, Write Room, Static Movement, Word Riot, Poetry Pacific, Counterexample Poetics, and Unlikely Stories IV.

Before that Daniel hiked through the University of Nebraska, Cal State University, Long Beach (Creative Writing), Montana, Pennsylvania, Europe, Arizona, and Palestine/Israel. He now lives on the central coast of California with his quilting wife.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Have You Considered “The Mismeasurement of Propinquity”?

Ever been too close to see something accurately? Too close (or too far) to make a wise choice?

Propinquity means the “nearness in place or time” (Webster’s 9th New Collegiate Dictionary). In “The Sphinx,” one of the most inspiring short stories of literature, Edgar Allan Poe meditates on life and death and meaning, and how to face tragedy and fear.

Poe was no stranger to tragedy or fear, for his wife, Virginia, died of tuberculosis when she was only 24, and they were so poor they didn’t have money for firewood or blankets to keep her warm in their cold cottage. She died wrapped in Edgar’s old army coat with their cat close to her to provide warmth.
How does one deal with such tragedy?

In the story "The Sphinx," the author brings keen insights to us through the medium of a monster story set at the time of an actual cholera epidemic in New York in 1832. In one paragraph alone, he raises this big-mouth-full phrase “mismeasurement of propinquity.” (Try saying that really fast;-)

Poe’s thesis is that all too often most of us, if not all, misunderstand the nature of reality and our own actions because we fail to consider the nearness in place and time (or the distance) when making major life decisions--philosophical and ethical choices.

Consider one simple example*:

#1 The father who won’t let his daughter go out to a party one Friday night because he is concerned there might be drugs and alcohol. He remembers all the parties he went to as a teenager, the boozing and carousing, and the devastated lives for some of the participants. He wants to protect his daughter from all that. He’s still very close to one particular night when he got stone drunk. Yes, a case of still being “near in place and time” to his own wrong choices.

In contrast his daughter is very far from that “place and time.” In fact even though she’s been warned by the ‘horror’ story over and over by her father, she just can’t see it. For her, she’s not like her dad (or her mother for that matter) and something bad isn’t going to happen. She doesn’t drink, gets good grade, and teaches Sunday school to 3rd graders…All she wants to do is to go to this very special party, see the guy she likes, hang out, and have fun. Yes, a case of being “far from that other place and time.”

Which individual is too close (or too far) to see accurately? Probably both the father and the daughter.
This is where reflection and careful choice is very important, also where specifics could be considered by both the parent and the teen.

The Mismeasurement of Propinquity shows up in so many situations and choices in human interaction and history. Think of examples of your own.

Then consider the complex example explained by Poe in “The Sphinx.”
Yes, get your hands, or your digital eyes, on a copy of the story and experience Poe’s 19th century explanation (updated example) of why the United States should never have invaded Iraq or Afghanistan, at least not with the hope that they would become democracies.

Think before you act. Don’t be too near or too far from the situation to measure accurately.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Syria, the Romans, General Douglas Macarthur, and a Peacemaker

Politicians are stridently arguing for various responses to Syria’s use of chemical weapons which slaughtered 1,500 people. What a tragedy! But where were all of these voices for the last several years when over 100,000 Syrians got slaughtered by guns and bombs?

There are at least 3 ways to respond to the horrific killing:

#1 The Way of Half Measures: This nearly always fails. Look at any historical war effort, especially American foreign policy of the last 50 years. Consider Afghanistan where many, many thousands of innocent Afghans have been slaughtered by Islamic militants, several thousand American servicemen and women have died for nothing, Afghan women are oppressed, Christians killed or banned--- because the Muslim leaders we support are corrupt and/or advocate a form of Sharia Law and they (and we) let Afghan farmers still flood the world market with heroin! Furthermore, many Afghans we are trying to help actually oppose “our ways” and instead empower the Taliban even now!

And all of this horror continues after we Americans have been there for over 11 years trying to bring change and have spent billions of dollars in the process! We even executed Ben Laden (and Saddam Hussein in Iraq). But notice Islamic fundamentalism has gotten worse not better. Islamic schools and mullahs continue to inspire millions of followers.

Half measures almost never work when it comes to changing people and eliminating evil governments and evil societies.

#2 The Way of the Juggernaut (or the Roman Way): This where you roll in like a steam-roller and stay in the enemy country for hundreds of years. The British only stayed in Islamic lands for one hundred years. It didn’t work. The Russians were harsher but only stayed 25 years. It didn’t work.

But try the Roman way of the juggernaut. It works. Of course it is ruthless and cruel and millions of innocent suffer, but it often works if you stay for many years. Consider that after the slaughter of the Jewish zealots by the Roman legions, no Jewish military attack happened for 900 years!

But at what a cost:-( to millions of people.

Or consider the Islamic juggernaut. It conquered more land than the Roman Empire and lasted in various forms for about 1,000 years! From 700 C.E. to 1917 C.E.—the end of WW1. With a few exceptions such as the violent Crusaders, all Christians were overwhelmed and subjugated in Muslim held countries for centuries.

This is the way, too, of America and General Douglas Macarthur at the end of WW2. It’s the approach to conquering another country which says as he did to the Japanese, “You’ll do it our way!” There is little in the way of half measures. The enemy society isn’t allowed to continue promulgating its evils like we have done in Afghanistan. No. People are forced to change to the ways of the conqueror. Of course half a million civilians were killed, but the juggernaut always does that—kill many. But it does bring change.

So should the United States invade the Middle East again, only this time take the Roman way, the Roman road? That means spending billions, locking down the country, eliminating Islam, telling the Syrians, “You’ll do it our way.”

However the Middle East isn’t Japan, not by any stretch of the imagination an ordered somewhat homogenous society like Japan. I lived in the Middle East for the most part of a year. All the people I knew who believed in God, hated each other and wanted to kill each other. On the Jewish kibbutz farm where I worked, everyone was an Atheist, but they, too, were willing to kill their enemies in the name of no god.

Places in the Middle East like Syria are volatile cauldrons of intense religious intolerance that have been only held in check by secular dictators, for decades through murder and intimidation. But at least if you didn’t cross the Assad family (or Saddam, Kaddafi) and his political/ethnic minority, you were somewhat protected. That is why, as bad as Assad is, most Christians have not opposed him. Notice now with the rise of Islamic rebels, how Christians are suffering and being driven out and killed by these Muslim jihadists.

In the case of Syria, if we Americans want to go the route of the juggernaut, we will need to think of hundreds of years of controlling and killing people in Syria. It might even take 1,000 years to get rid of the Sharia-Law-form-of-Islam consciousness out of the populace!

And at what cost in humans lives and Life.

OR

#3 The Way of the Cross: Jesus’ way isn’t popular, not even with most Christians who would rather kill their political enemies than love them.

But if you have doubts about #1 or #2, please check out this 3rd way.

This is the way of Jesus-followers such as Elie Chacour and Martin Luther King Jr.

One way to get started is to read the true story of Elie Chacour’s Palestinian family—how they followed Jesus in the midst of war and suffering. Read Blood Brothers.

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Brothers-Dramatic-Palestinian-Christian/dp/0801015731/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378260503&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=blood+brothers+by+elie+chacour

And how it has made all the difference for thousands of Palestinian Christians, Jews, and Muslims ever since.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Peacemaking versus Warmaking

Insightful points from an article by Dave Zarembka of Friends Peace Teams:

"Let us imagine that in the last decades the international community had supplied everyone in_____________[Fill in the blank with one of the many places on earth where war is destroying humans]
with clean water/sanitation, basic medical care, universal primary education, decent housing, and those other things are are needed for a wholesome life. To do this for the whole world would have cost much less than what is presently spent on the military.

At the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda, all expatriates who wished were evacuated (while their Rwandan colleagues were left behind
for slaughter). This included 257 Americans.

However one American, Carl Wilkens, a Seventh Day Adventist aid worker, evacuated his wife and four children but refused to leave his Rwandan colleagues himself and stayed behind. During the genocide, the interahamwe were closing in to kill the Tutsi boys at an orphanage that Carl was supplying with food and water.

By chance, Carl ran into the Rwandan Prime Minister, Jean Kambanda, and asked him to call off the interahamwe.

This the Prime Minister did and the boys were saved. In other words, this one American who stayed behind saved more Rwandans from genocide than did the total US Government with its military might of fearful bombs, ships, guns, and billions of dollars."

Now, of course, those who argue for military might--probably will--point out that usually such an appeal by one caring human like Carl Wilkens will go unanswered. But that isn't the point Zarembka is making.

"What if there were 150,000 Tom Fox's [a peace witness in Iraq who was murdered by the Islamic militants] or 150,000 Carl Wilkens in ____________?"

What if we in the United States and other countries spent as much money on mission and peace outreach as we give to their governments to conduct war now, and pay for past wars, and create new weapons for future wars?
by David Zarembka,
coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative of Friends Peace Teams

*Read David Zarembka's whole article in PeaceWays, a magazine of Friends Peace Teams.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Slogged SOGGY Way of American Politics

Contact your government and call for an end to intolerance and the denial of freedom of religion (the right to change from the religion of your parents and your country) in (supposedly) Islamic countries.

Read my blog post at Groove Studio One on the arrest of another Afghan by the U.S. sponsored government: http://www.groovestudio1.blogspot.com/

In the Light of God,

Daniel Wilcox