We are riding to Fort Collins and back to Denver over the weekend of June 26 and 27 with the team of the Multiple Sclerosis Ride Colorado. Please join us on this 150 mile long journey and contribute to our team page.

I am the team co-captain. You can go to my Facebook and sign on and you can go to my team page and sign on. Read my log and you will feel compelled to help sponsor these two great causes.

Multiple Sclerosis is connected with my family, my health, my neighbor, my partner, my life.

MS debilitates many of those who I love and it takes away the chance of living a long and productive life.

Bearing the stress and strain of this illness has changed the way I understand the world.

I ask why is this happening and what is the potential outcome from this for those who suffer?
I realize the beauty and gift of the world is our faith and sustenance in our connecting with one another, our love and devoting our lives to caring when life is stressful and we are in pain. It is looking through one another's eyes and feeling the gifts that we share being here living with this as a clan.

What I have been given is a rare glimpse into the strength, courage and conviction of those who I love and who nourish me with their smiles and grace.

Each day I am thankful for the people who embrace me and look with loving kindness into my eyes.

I know that we can make this illness dissipate and after a time there will be no one left who suffers because we stood shoulder to shoulder and lifted one another up.

MS Colorado Ride: The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless Team. Randle Loeb Team -co-captain.

BENEATH THE SPIN

Would Tavis Smiley's 'Black Agenda' Help the Black Community, or Bring America to its Knees?

On Tuesday, February23, Tavis Smiley went on Tom Joyner's Morning Show and did a commentary indicating that Rev. Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, Charles Ogletree, Valerie Jarrett, Marc Morial, and Dr. Dorothy Height said that President Obama doesn’t need a Black agenda. In doing so he not only grossly distorted Sharpton's comment that the president didn't need to "ballyhoo" a Black agenda, but he also left the impression that President Obama was ignoring the plight of the Black community - which is blatantly untrue.

So yes, I was quite angry - and one of the things that set me off was his disingenuous self-righteousness. He said:

"I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means dying for them, I’m going that way. Because I heard a voice saying, ‘Do something for others."

For a man who loves to quote scripture, he seems to have missed King James 3:14 - "But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth." One would have to be blind to believe that Tavis is less than envious of President Obama, or that he doesn't have selfish ambition in his heart. And one would have to be a fool to believe that Tavis is willing to die for the hungry. Personally, I don't see that kind of selflessness in his character. And while he may indeed be genuine about hearing voices, whose voice he's hearing should be up for serious debate.

But I was angered even more by his hypocrisy. It was clear that he requested to go on the Tom Joyner show (after giving up his spot as a regular commentator on the show well over a year earlier) to create a controversy just to promote an event that he organized in Chicago for later this month. In his commentary he said the following:

"I know 'What’s going on.' I know “We shall overcome,' but I don’t know this new tune, the president doesn’t need a Black agenda. And I’ve been hearing from other members, Tom, of our Black chorale, all across America as well, who either, like me, don’t know these new lyrics or have heard the song but ain’t down with singing it. That said, it’s time for a choir rehearsal so that we’re all singing from the same page. And so, our choir rehearsal will be held Saturday, March 20, in Chicago at 8:00 am, at Chicago State University, with Dr. Wayne Watson. Now, for all of those who can’t attend the choir rehearsal in person, this rehearsal will be broadcast[ed] on national television."

Don't forget to Mark you're calendars, now. That's Saturday, March 20, at . . . He sounded like he was doing a used car commercial.

Tavis is also fixated on accountability, and how "he choose to identify with the underprivileged," yet, as I pointed out two years ago in my article, The 2008 State of The Black Union, while he may choose to identify with the underprivileged, he hangs out with the heads of corporations - and you're known by the company you keep:

". . . how accountable is it to produce a show called The State of the Black Union then sponsor it with companies that are largely responsible for the very conditions that you're complaining about? One of the sponsors was Allstate Insurance–a company that is alleged to have denied the claims of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims. One victim, Michael Homan, alleges that Allstate denied his claim based on their position that Katrina wasn't windy enough. Another sponsor was Exxon/Mobile–a company that's raking in record profits while many Black people have to flip a coin to decide whether they're going to eat or put enough gas in their car to get to work. Wal-Mart was another sponsor–a company that's committed to blocking collective bargaining, providing their employees fair wages and healthcare, who destroy jobs by running other businesses out of the community and purchasing their merchandise from outside the United States, and who humiliate their customers by searching them before they leave the store."

Is that accountability? Does it sound like any of those companies are committed to a Black agenda? It sure doesn't sound like it to me, and I'm a mere heathen who's not willing to die for any cause. As a former Marine I was taught that we don't willingly die for anything - boot camp 101. "A Marine only dies, because he failed to duck.

I was also angry with Tavis because he's preaching to the Black community through ignorance. He's trying to lead Black people while he himself is obviously ignorant of history. He seems to be completely unaware of the fact that Richard Nixon also had a Black agenda. Nixon was the president who signed affirmative action into being, and when he did it, he had his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek.

Prior to AA we had a thriving civil rights movement. Not only Blacks, but thousands of whites were out marching with Martin Luther King, demanding equal opportunity for Blacks people.

Then President Nixon said, Ok, they want to fight for the rights of Black people, let's see how they feel when I allow Blacks to start taking their jobs and replacing their kids in the universities - and his scheme to undermine the Black movement worked like a charm.

While we were busy celebrating our shortsighted "victory," our victory led to USC v. Bakke, the emergence of Ronald Reagan, and White folks flooding into the Republican Party in droves. These people were far from racists, but it's human nature to protect one's own interest. Thus, Bakke's lawsuit against affirmative action brought White support for the civil rights movement to a screeching halt, and led directly to Ronald Reagan and the Republican era.

And what did we get in return? The only people in the Black community that benefitted were those who needed the help least. The cream of the crop was skimmed out of the community and went to work for large corporations. And with them, they took all of the talent, imagination, entrepreneurial skills, role models, and jobs. That, in turn, left young Black people with no one to look up to in the community but drug dealers.

Then thirty years later Barack Obama arrived on the scene, and the GOP was caught completely off guard. They were shocked. Where did he come from? But more importantly, where did all these people come from who're willing to vote for a Black man for president?

I'll tell you where they came from. Those were young Whites, and the closet moderates and progressives that fled the Democratic Party during the Affirmative Action era. They were so anxious for a change from the GOP that they got behind Obama even before Black people saw the light - that's why I'm so critical of Obama for failing to firmly initiate the change that he promised, an accommodation to the GOP that may, indeed, lead to his downfall.

But while I strongly disagree with his policy to be less than firm with the GOP, Obama is a very astute and intelligent man, so he's not about to listen to the rantings of Tavis Smiley. He understands history, and he's not about to make the same mistake twice.

Affirmative Action was a wonderful initiative, but as a result of it, the Black community was bamboozled into making the biggest political mistake in modern history - allowing AA to be based on race rather than need. Had it been based on need, it's roots would have reached down into the Black community to those who needed it most. It would have also included poor Whites, which would have prevented the GOP from using it as a weapon against us.

So as a direct result of the very kind of policy that Tavis Smiley is advocating, the GOP was able to turn AA into a liability for the Democratic Party that destroyed the most effective progressive coalition that this country has ever known. It was AA that allowed the GOP to turn the term "liberal" into a curse word in the political lexicon.

AA was also used to create Judases like Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, and Alan Keyes - and they're not the only ones. Anyone who has ever worked in a major corporation or a government agency knows that these Judases are sprinkled throughout our workforce. As we speak, I'm investigating a piece on the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Postal Service where I have absolute proof that minorities (including veterans) are being forced under the threat of losing their job to work as much as a half day (daily) without pay.

Think about that - I have proof that Blacks and Hispanics who have risen to positions of authority due to Affirmative Action are now being used, and given huge bonuses, as overseers in a United States Government agency to enforce slave labor in the twenty first century! It's been going on for years (I have documented proof of that as well), and the unions and the Inspector General's Office know about it (also documented), and they're doing absolutely nothing about it.

So yes, I'm angry, because Tavis is a corporate tool and manipulator. While he's trying to keep the people focused on the last war in order to promote his own interests, the powers that be have moved on to a class war. They don't care any more about poor White folks than they do Black people - the healthcare debate should demonstrate that to anyone with any sense at all. Sen. Joe Lieberman just told the White folks of Connecticut to go to Hell.

So if the people would open their eyes they'd see that Tavis' self-serving nonsense is an unnecessary distraction. Blacks, and Whites, are now under the gun. So this is no time to be distracted by a self-serving wannabe. He's not one of us, the poor and middle class struggling to survive - he's made a few dollars. His chumminess with Walmart and those who oppress us clearly demonstrates that he's one of them. But don't take my word for it - ask the people of Inglewood, Ca. whose agenda he promoted during their battle with Walmart.

Obviously, the only thing that will satisfy Tavis and his cohorts is for President Obama to throw his fist in the air every time they play Hail to the Chief. While Tavis is demagogueing the issue to promote his own agenda, here's what the president is doing for ALL of the people, including the Black community:

Obama Initiatives

- Spur Job Creation: “In addition, to help those most affected by the recession, the Budget will extend emergency assistance to seniors and families with children, Unemployment Insurance benefits, COBRA tax credits, and relief to states and localities to prevent layoffs.”

- Reforming the Job Training System: “The Budget calls for reform of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which supports almost 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers nationwide and a range of other services. With $6 billion for WIA at DOL—and an additional $4 billion in the Department of Education—the Budget calls for reforms to improve WIA.” Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Enforcement: “To strengthen civil rights enforcement against racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, religious, and gender discrimination, the Budget includes an 11 percent increase in funding to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. This investment will help the Division handle implementation of a historic new hate crimes law. The Budget also provides an $18 million, or 5 percent increase, for the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), which is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee. This increased investment will allow for more staff to reduce the backlog of private sector charges.”

- Support Historically Black Colleges and Universities: “The Budget proposes $642 million, an increase of $30 million over the 2010 level, to support Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In addition to this discretionary funding increase for MSIs, the Administration supports legislation passed by the House of Representatives and pending in the Senate that would provide $2.55 billion in mandatory funding to MSIs over 10 years.”

- Help Families Struggling with Child Care Costs: “The Budget will nearly double the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-class families making under $85,000 a year by increasing their credit rate from 20 percent to 35 percent of child care expenses. Nearly all eligible families making under $115,000 a year would see a larger credit. The Budget also provides critical support for young children and their families by building on historic increases provided in ARRA. The Budget provides an additional $989 million for Head Start and Early Head Start to continue to serve 64,000 additional children and families funded in ARRA.”

- Reform Elementary and Secondary School Funding: “The Budget supports the Administration’s new vision for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) … The Budget provides a $3 billion increase in funding for K-12 education programs authorized in the ESEA, including $900 million for School Turnaround Grants, and the Administration will request up to $1 billion in additional funding if Congress successfully completes ESEA reauthorization.”

- Increase Pell Grants: “The Recovery Act and 2009 appropriations bill increased the maximum Pell Grant by more than $600 for a total award of $5,350. The Budget proposes to make that increase permanent and put them on a path to grow faster than inflation every year, increasing the maximum grant by $1,000, expanding eligibility, and nearly doubling the total amount of Pell grants since the President took office.”

- Help Relieve Student Loan Debt: “To help graduates overburdened with student loan debt, the Administration will strengthen income-based repayment plans for student loans by reducing monthly payments and shortening the repayment period so that overburdened borrowers will pay only 10 percent of their discretionary income in loan repayments and can have their remaining debt forgiven after 20 years. Those in public service careers will have their debt forgiven after 10 years. The Budget also expands low-cost Perkins student loans.”

- Prevent Hunger and Improve Nutrition: “The President’s Budget provides $8.1 billion for discretionary nutrition program supports, which is a $400 million increase over the 2010 enacted level. Funding supports 10 million participants in the WIC program, which is critical to the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants. The Budget also supports a strong Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization package that will ensure that school children have access to healthy meals and to help fulfill the President’s pledge to end childhood hunger. The President continues to support the nutrition provisions incorporated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).”

- Revitalize Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: “The Budget includes $250 million for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program, which will target neighborhoods anchored by distressed public or assisted housing with physical and social revitalization grounded in promising, measurable, and evidence-based strategies.”

- Increase Funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program: “The President’s Budget requests $19.6 billion for the Housing Choice Voucher program to help more than two million extremely low income families with rental assistance to live in decent housing in neighborhoods of their choice. The Budget continues funding for all existing mainstream vouchers and provides flexibility to support new vouchers that were leased and $85 million in special purpose vouchers for homeless families with children, families at risk of homelessness, and persons with disabilities.”

- Preserve 1.3 Million Affordable Rental Units through Project-Based Rental Assistance Program: “The President’s Budget provides $9.4 billion for the Project-Based Rental Assistance program to preserve approximately 1.3 million affordable rental units through increased funding for contracts with private owners of multifamily properties. This critical investment will help low-income households to obtain or retain decent, safe and sanitary housing. In addition, the Administration requests $350 million to fund the first phase of this multi-year initiative to regionalize the Housing Choice Voucher program and convert Public Housing to project-based vouchers.”

- Promote Affordable Homeownership and Protect Families from Mortgage Fraud: “The Budget requests $88 million for HUD to support homeownership and foreclosure prevention through Housing Counseling and $20 million to combat mortgage fraud. In addition, the Budget requests $250 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation’s (NRC) grant and training programs. Of the $250 million, $113 million is requested for foreclosure prevention activities, a $48 million increase (74 percent) over 2010.”

- Fight Gang Violence and Violent Crime: “The Budget provides $112 million for place-based, evidence supported, initiatives to combat violence in local communities, including $25 million for the Community-Based Violence Prevention Initiatives that aim to reduce gun and other violence among youth gangs in cities and towns across the country, and $37 million for the Attorney General’s Children Exposed to Violence Initiative, which targets the youth most affected by violence and most susceptible to propagating it as they grow up.”

- Expand Prisoner Re-entry Programs: “The Budget provides $144 million for Department Justice prisoner re-entry programs, including an additional $100 million for the Office of Justice Programs to administer grant programs authorized by the Second Chance Act and $30 million for residential substance abuse treatment programs in State and local prisons and jails. In addition, the Budget provides $98 million for Department of Labor programs that provide employment-centered services to adult and youth ex-offenders and at-risk youth..”

- Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant Program: “The Budget provides $4.4 billion for the Community Development Fund, including $3.99 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Formula Program (CDBG), and $150 million for the creation of a Catalytic Investment Competition Grants program. The new Catalytic Competition Grants program uses the authorities of CDBG, but will provide capital to bring innovative economic development projects to scale to make a measurable impact.”

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot .com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Beneath the Spin By Eric L. Wattree

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles (Watts). He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Black Star News, and a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media, and several other online sites and publications. He's also the author of "A Message From the Hood."

On March 4, 1933, President Roosevelt's appointed Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. She was the first woman in United States history to serve in the Cabinet.
One wonders what took men so long to realize the gifts of women to America since for all of the history of this nation women stood side by side with men in leadership at every level of governance. How could we be callous enough to see that our will was the only perspective that mattered?

In my life time I have known many talented and able women including my daughters. I have watched with horror the treatment and disregard for them as individuals. I have sought to lift up the views and express my conviction that equal rights and partnership is the only way in which women and men can live as citizens and a community. Often women are mocked when they are powerful instead of their attributes being taken as a normal part of our culture.

It is clear that we would never have achieved what we have in the world without our mothers and the finite gifts of courage and brilliance that are part of their character, and for which our survival is determined.

My own mother is a brilliant example of self-determination and commitment and all of how I think and act is directly related to her tutelage. Often men are humbly in their grace and have been granted every advantage from the women in their lives.

We stand on the brink of a new foundation for democracy where women have a dominant role in the affairs of state and we can turn aside the prejudice and bigotry of treating women abusively as many of our national and local leaders have chosen to act. We have to begin to see that our actions have diminished our great opportunity to live freely and prosper because for too long we have neglected the greatest asset of creation, which is the mettle and worth of women as leaders.

BENEATH THE SPIN

The Day America Outlawed Democracy

The time is past due for America to start connecting the dots regarding our political establishment. It has become increasingly clear that we've reached a political crisis in this country, but contrary to what we're being led to believe, the major division in country is no longer between liberals and conservatives, but rather, the American people and those we've elected to represent us.

Due to our political indifference, we've allowed the political establishment in this country to lavish upon themselves so many rewards, prerogatives, and political perks that they can no longer identify with the people they're suppose to represent. They've become a class within themselves. Where they were once considered the trusted employees of the American people, they've now become a part of a new American aristocracy. Thus, they now identify much more closely with the rich and powerful - or those they're supposed to be protecting us from - than they do the constituency they're supposed to represent.

So liberals and conservatives alike need to open their eyes. We need to recognize that we're now facing a common foe that has morphed into something that has become a threat to us all. We must also realize that it is essential that we set our respective differences aside - at least temporarily - just long enough to address this common enemy to our way of life.

While liberals and conservatives may disagree on their respective philosophy of governance, we must never confuse that philosophical disagreement with the belief that liberals are any less loyal as Americans, or that conservatives are any less sincere in their desire to make America a better place for us all. As different as the two groups are, in the final analysis, both liberals and conservatives want the very same thing - what is in the best interest of the American people. But that can no longer be said of our political establishment. Their current behavior has clearly demonstrated that their top priority entails feathering their own nests by protecting their true constituents - big business.

They were better able to hide their alliance in the past, but the current geo-economic circumstance has forced them into the open. Thus, the political establishment is now forced to betray their true attitude toward the American people - an "ignorant worker class," with a moral obligation to sacrifice both our families (in war), and wealth (in bailouts), for the personal comfort of the upper class.

That accounts for why the Wall Street bailout sailed through congress like a hot knife through butter, with only perfunctory grumbling from congress for effect, while healthcare reform, the jobs bill, legislation to enhance veterans benefits, and any other legislation aimed at helping the average American has been met with fierce resistance.

It's no accident that the only Obama effort that's being supported by the GOP is his initiative to go to war. The "party of no" eagerly says yes to that, regardless to the cost of (lower and middle class) lives and treasure; nor is it an accident that they completely ignore the fact that even after the useless waste of life and treasure, a victory means that Al Qaeda will simply move on to a different location. They don't have a problem with any of that, because war enriches their constituency, the military/industrial complex.

Neither is it an accident that the rule of law is simply being ignored regarding Bush and Cheney's war crimes, in spite of the fact that it makes America less safe, or the fact that it led directly to the economic hardship currently being suffered by the America people. They don't have a problem with because the political establishment is a class within itself, and it protects its own. That's the one area of agreement that truly seems to be bipartisan.

The reason for that, as I've mentioned in earlier columns, is the new world order is not only geopolitical, but economic in nature. "When the United States had a thriving industrial economy one class complimented the other. Labor was well paid and given the security of knowing that they had a job for life, so they had the confidence to purchased goods that the corporations produced. That allowed the companies that sold the goods to prosper to the benefit of the investor class." But now that U.S. corporations have to compete globally with countries that are paying their workers pennies per day, the American middle class has become a prohibitively expensive liability to America's ability to compete around the world. So now the U.S. government - both Republicans and Democrats - is in the process of addressing that issue by downgrading the standard of living of the American middle class.

The idea of relegating the American people to second class status isn't a new strain of thinking in American politics; it's been around since this nation's founding. It's just that after being shot down during the constitutional convention in lieu of a more egalitarian form of government, previous adherents of this philosophy had the good sense to be more discreet in their efforts.

As I've pointed out before, Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the fiscal conservative philosophy, said the following:

"All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people.... The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government." (Debates of the Federalist Convention May 14-September 17, 1787).

So the fact is, the reason that the political establishment is so willing to throw America under the bus is that the new world order has made it politically expedient to embrace Hamilton's philosophy that lower and middle class Americans shouldn't have a right to self-government in the first place. But since it would be problematic to try to formally take that right away through a constitutional amendment, it's being taken away through legislative procedure and rulings through the Supreme Court.

That's what has led to the current disaffection by both liberals and conservatives toward government. The American people can sense their rights slipping away, but they have yet to come to terms with what is actually going on. They have yet to realize that congressional gridlock is a convenient way of denying them their rights. They have also yet to recognize that the majority in the senate is allowing the minority to abuse of the filibuster procedure because both parties are in collusion. The Republican filibuster provides cover for the Democratic majority for failing to enact, or greatly watering down, legislation being demanded by the people, but neither party wants to enact.

Then on January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court delivered the final blow against the people. In order to insure against any repeat of the 2008 election where the people mounted a grassroots effort over the internet to usurp the power of corporations through campaign funding, the Supreme Court past what is essentially the modern version of Plessy v. Ferguson, taking away the rights of the people by saying that the American people and corporations are "separate but equal."

That ruling should serve as a red flag for both liberals and conservatives alike. In 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson was used to undermine the rights of Black people in this country. Now, the current ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee, is being used to undermine the rights of the middle class.

The ruling stands as a perfect metaphor for Jim Crow. But this time it ushers in an era of a diminished American middle class, and the jackboots of the new world order, as it formally arrives at our front door.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot .com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Beneath the Spin By Eric L. Wattree

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles (Watts). He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Black Star News, and a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media, and several other online sites and publications. He's also the author of "A Message From the Hood."

As we strive to close the pay gap, we cannot forget what the women before us had to endure. Did you know that in 1935, an emergency National Recovery Act required women who held jobs with the government to receive 25% less pay than men in the same jobs? This act came out of the First New Deal of 1933. It opened the door for women activists to use the New Deal as an opportunity to gain a national forum. General Secretary Lucy Randolph Mason and her league relentlessly lobbied the NRA (National Recovery Administration) to make its regulatory codes just and fair for all workers and to eliminate explicit and de facto discrimination in pay, working conditions, and opportunities for reasons of sex, race, or union status. Even after the demise of the NRA, the league continued campaigning for collective bargaining rights and fair labor standards at both federal and state levels.

We must keep fighting for pay equity and the end of poor practices among employers who still think it is okay to discriminate.

Join us on April 20th at 5:30pm as we rally for pay equity. Go to 9to5Colorado.org to RSVP

Become a fan of the Pay Equity! face book page and follow 9to5colorado on twitter.

Yes
When the morning comes and the twilight of hope and dreams

who will be the dreamer and where will your dreams take you

What dreams from yonder window break

spilling consciousness of fragile spirits

crackling in hoarfrost of morning new with dew?

Sentient-standing shivering

last trail of moonlight

appears drifting toward distant shoreline of horizons

shaking off traumatic sentries of the ebony darkness

settling into a daydream

Peace reigning on bony flesh of corpuscles and sinews

left standing in solemn grace

blessing the morning light of the eternal

refreshing

we choose a chorus that hushes and murmurs

on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, .........................

(The original like a favorite recipe)

When the morning comes and the twilight of hope and dreams, who will be the dreamer and where will your dreams take you? What dreams from yonder window breaks and spills over the consciousness of fragile spirits that crack in the hoarfrost of the morning new with dew? Sentient and standing shivering in the last trail of moonlight that appears drifting toward the horizon, one shakes off the trauma and settles into a daydream.

Peace reigns over the corpuscles and sinews and one stands in solemn grace blessing the morning light that brings refreshing warmth.

The Way to Make a Difference Is in Your Community and in Your Life

Volunteering, seeking membership in community organizations, getting out and working, giving, developing leadership in your neighborhood, challenging the perception that people just want to have fun is a way to have passion and improve the lives of everyone.

Many times we read of people who, “play it forward, are everyday heroes, work on behalf of their faith communities, challenge the status quo of living for today and forgetting the rest of the world. This is blatantly mistaken. What we are is caring and generous. We are devoted to our families and our friends. We are citizens first and fore most. What we have to do is recognize the common good and keep up the effort, teach our children well what it means to be a volunteer.

For more than three decades I have worked for the American Red Cross teaching adults and offering classes to children in a wide span of activities from the swimming pool to first responders. I have been a donor to the Bonfils Blood Bank and even when I was out on the street I did not stop from my work for the Denver Homeless Voice News paper, the church newsletter as an editor, the local paper as a contributor and testifying before the local legislature. In most of my life, since I was a small child my parents instilled in me a commitment to serve.

Mt motto as a clergy person is to be a brother to others, to solve problems and make a way to restore trust and purpose where it has been lost by my friends and family. I have made many mistakes in my judgment and lost a tremendous degree of integrity and respect among those I have loved and yet, there is always the opportunity for redemption and stewardship of the earth.

In my older life I realize that the greatest gifts have been those that are free. We have a lot of emphasis on giving money and that is good but there must always be an emphasis as citizens on service. To have a republic it calls for leadership because we are born here. We have a great responsibility as Socrates showed in the “Republic,” to honor our birth on earth and live out our commitment with verve and élan.