it's all still happening...getting used to hope?

a week in and the signs are still up
the name is still resounding
with glee
the usual world is still
on its way in a hand basket
yet people everywhere
seem to not be that phased
because they know what is happening

our man was seen hobnobbing at the whitehouse
today...

and that alone
is hope incarnating...

this is no longer a time for hope to be deferred
for 8 long years we have been waiting
for this time
for some of us we have been waiting since 1968
and some since nov. 22 1963...

we have a future
again
that looks brighter
than our past...
for the first time since
that dreadful night
the supreme court announce
they were giving the presidency
to the unelected gov. of Texas...

the first time...

it's amazing how the global consensus
is in already...
no need to wait for the hindsight of history
the present administration and its sorry cast
is loathed and reviled
by enough of the world
for us all to feel the elation and jubilence
at its democratic demise...

but the great thing about this moment is
not only is it that we get to get rid of
and shake off the freaking yukkyness...
but...
we also get to have
just a human being
with obvious integrity
in the office of the presidency
of the United States...

now from the reactions of the world
and the immediate headlines
the media seems to have
initially couched the story as:
"first black president"

from the first moments
that magnificent night
as i searched the web for his victory speech
from the front seat of my bus
parked on a street in "the Valley"
and at first saw the headlines
"First Black President "
i was actually surprised
and thought they had all missed the point
i've been meaning to write this since then
& as the days have gone by
what i've seen has only served to inspire
me more to get it down as the moment passes...
so here is my two cents:

for me as a person of 3 racial bloodlines
the significance of this election
of Obama wasn't about race...
it was about the quality of a person
triumphing for us all at a time
when we all ..the whole world
really needed for the best man,
the best person
to win...
so we could finally
begin to live up to our potential
and our ideals...as a people...as a nation
and as a true beacon
as the best and brightest humanity has to offer
yes
as "...the last best hope..."
at this critical of critical moments...

there are those who may see
this as the story of
the triumph over race prejudice
another giant step in this country
healing itself of
the undeniable truth
that America was built on slavery
(both the Whitehouse and capitol building
were both built by enslaved Africans
and African-Americans)
and the inherent hypocrisy
of "the founding fathers"
creating a nation state
based on liberty and justice for all
except those they owned and enslaved...
which led to the horrors
of the civil war and the klan
and the lynchings, fire-hoses,
and the illegality at risk of death
of my ancestors on both sides
making love and marrying...
for the past 2 centuries until 1968...

given all this ...history...
for me i recognise how important it is
for all those working on the race thing
but if we leave it there
if we let the story be
"1st BLACK Pres."
we miss the point...

1,000 or 10,000 years from now
if humanity is still here
Race will be as confusing an issue
to understand as it is for "us"
to understand the Bosnian
or Rwandan or Shiite/Sunni genocides...

but if things go right
humanity may have cause
to look back here
and see that here is where
we finally started
to fulfill our destiny
our potential
as human beings and as a species
and it all started
with
h o p e...

the hope we rallied
around
and invested
in our choice
of a man
who stood
for one brief shining moment
as a symbol
for all that we might aspire to
for ourselves
and our generations...

a man who recognized
and reminded us in speech after speech
that it wasn't about him
it was about us
our relationship with our selves
our potential
and our future...

a rallying point and a symbol
of all that is
the true, right and goodness
of humanity
to finally set things right
and strike out on the best path
for humanity...

the path of consciousness
and compassion...

no small task
no small expectation
but at least we finally
get to live and move in the direction
we started and left off with
"...one small step for man..."

it ain't about race...

it's about promise
fulfilling
& living up to
our own ideals...

simple homework
so good to be doing it with
the whole world at once...

that is the wonder of this time
the global awareness
of the unity of the species of humanity
with the rest of creation...
to pretend otherwise is to really miss out...

never before in the history of our species
has the awareness of our connectedness
been so unavoidable...

i love you

d

thought walking across the street...

an economy
based on debt
is an economy based on fear...
?

the economy of fear...
?

the politics of fear
supports & perpetuates
the economy of fear...
?

worrying about paying the bills
is giving in to
& supporting
the economy of fear
?

the future is an economy based on
gifting & resource...
everyone doing what they feel called to do...
?

c l o w n o c r a c y ?

we live in a world ruled by clownz?????

gwbush.
dick cheney,
donald rumsfeld
vladimir putin,
the castro brothers,
the burmeses military junta,
the venezuela's hugo chavez, the ex-nazi pope,
the iranian pres. ahmadinejad,
the zimbabwe pres robert mugabe,
north korean dictator kim jong il
just to name a few ?

the solution

THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES MARSHALL PLAN

the problem:
is with a president who is a texas oil man
& a vice president the former CEO of haliburton
the worlds largest supplier
of infrastructure to the oil industry
there is no incentive
to find any solution or resolution
to any crisis in the middle east
or any instability anywhere in the world
from Nigeria to Venezuela
Uzbekistan to Iran,
Sudan to Columbia
Brazil to Malaysia
to Lebanon to even
the Alaska NATIONAL
wildlife preserve,
the slow comeback of the gulf coast
& the strategy of limiting
oil refinery capacity in the US
insuring rumours of rolling blackout
in California, the 5th largest economy
in the world...
rumors of limits, shortages,
long gas pump lines
& high prices
keep gas pump prices high..

what incentive do oil producers
from texas to Dubai
have to keep prices low..?

NONE

low gas prices is what drove
failing young oilman george w.bush
& his oilman contemporaries to
join the midland texas bible study group
become born again
& stop drinking & drugging
low gas prices cause
domestic oil producers to cap wells
'til the price goes up...

well they've certainly enjoyed the benefits
of having one their own
god fearing, born again christian
texas oil men in the whitehouse
playing the roll of the hothead
unreasonable, unpredictable wildcat/
cowboy/ christian crusader/avenger/
loose canon...

the more uncertainty there is
or merely appears to be
with the oil producing nations
of the world
the higher gas prices will stay

rumors of war
serve as good as
actual armed conflict
as an excuse in the justification for keeping the
price of a barrel of oil high...

who are the main beneficiaries
but Canada, the texans, the arabs, the russians
a handful of third world bureaucrats,
oil commodity trading firms,
& their stockholders..

the gross ineptitude & inadequacy
the the bush administration has made
of US foreign policy
through bullying & blundering;
the media parroting the abstract concept of
an endless war on terrorism through the daily repetition
of the words "war", "terror", "threat", & "fear";
[hurricanes, tidal waves, & natural disasters..
all bonus mayhem]
serve to create an atmosphere of instability
that in turn helps to justify high gas prices...

basically these people have no incentive
to do the right thing
except to appear to be doing the right thing
to justify doing little more
than helping their friends
make as much money as they can
out of the status quo
while they can
before either the oil runs out,
they all get run out of office,
or technology changes the playing field

which ever comes first..

the one thing these folks didn't
count on is fear fatigue

where people just get tired of being afraid
& seek to silence the fearmongers
the result of the midterm elections...

wars stop
when enough people
get tired enough
to stop participating in them

the goal of those behind
the insurgencies in iraq
is to create enough
kaos, hopelessness, & despair
for the US and all western influence
to leave in enough disgrace
to think thrice about returning
to meddle in middle eastern/ Arab/ Muslim
affairs ever again
and then establish a ultra conservative global
Muslim theocracy based on a strict interpretation
of the Koran...
[hence the execution by the insurgencies of
barbers: beards are good
shaving is bad to the conservatives..
doctors: western medicine -bad
professors: western training -bad
school teachers: western influences -bad
like educating women.. -an abomination
blowing up schools: more fighting against western influence
such execution serve
the added goal of sending a clear message of
intolerance for those who would stay
& inspiring all the other western leaning
to become refugees/ messengers of fear...]

stability works against this strategy
but as the old saying goes
it takes a carpenters' sweat, skill, & time to build a barn
but a jackass but a second to knock it down
it's easier to create kaos
than to maintain stability...

it appears easier for some
to take life that to nurture & nourish it
to hope earthly hope

it appears easier to some
to be about death
than to live

it appears easier for some
to make war & villains of our fellows
than to do the work necessary
to create & maintain
a healthy environment
that includes tolerance & dissent

given all this
the solution is in ending the argument
through technological advancement

imagine if the people of the united states
& all other like minded countries
chose to lead the world
in discovering & implementing
alternative energies innovations,
completely focusing our national energies on
totally ending the dependency of our global
economies & technologies on oil
through a grassroots technological revolution
resulting in the adoption & creation
of a completely non oil based economy

then that would take away oil
as an excuse, a bargaining chip,
a hostage, a carrot,
a reason or justification
for wars & supporting dictatorships
co opting our own
stated democratic principles
by denying
freedom of democratic
self determination
to other peoples
& developing nations
due to economic expediency & imperative:
i.e."..but we needed the oil..."

the result:
the success
of our technological undertaking
through
THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES
MARSHALL PLAN:

those whose economies
& politics depend
on the maintenance of the status quo
with regards to oil
both in the middle east
& elsewhere
would be left
with the argument
& not much else...

for at the moment
the argument is financed
through oil

"..living well
is the best revenge.."
the old saying goes

if we want to win the war
exit the argument it's based on

what would an alternative energies
Marshall plan look like?

a.
tax incentives & subsidies
for research, development
implementation, purchasing
alternative energies based vehicles,
power, heating & cooling systems
for home & industry

b.
increased funding for existing national
laboratories specifically for the
development of alternative energies..

c.
the establishment of
8 new regional centers for alternative energy
research, development, & implementation..

d.
matching federal funds
for state centers of alternative energy research,
development, & implementation..

e.
annual national & international conferences for
alternative energies research, development,
& implementation..
[model: world economic forum]

f.
federal & state
[& even united nations] sponsorship
of an annual design competition for grants
for individuals, organizations, & corporations
for alternative energies research, development,
& implementation..

g.
the establishment of both
a national endowment
& a national academy
for alternative energies research,
development, & implementation..

h.
establishment of the department of
alternative energies research,
development, & implementation.
with a cabinet level post..

such an undertaking as this initiative
focuses on our strengths as a nation
what america is famous for:
technological innovation,
organization,
pioneering design,
& capitalization..

we owe this to our children
to do everything we can do
to leave the world better than we found it
ecologically
we would be the first generation
to do so...

any presidential candidate who
would advocate
THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES
MARSHALL PLAN
would be a beacon for all those
who would like to embrace a future
of global prosperity beyond
the excuses maintained
& routinely served up
for the past century
by the dinosaurs of the limited pie view
to justify screwing some group of the human race
so that one small group of humans
could own & control all of the global resources
to do with as they please for the benefit
of just them & their friends..

this view & mindset
is inevitably & irreversibly
dying now
because it is fundamentally flawed
by being based on erroneous notions
like
everything isn't connected
that there is such a thing as
trash in the cosmic sense
that one can actually
throw something away
on this planet & not
have it effect something else

that one person could ever be
better than or worse than another
in the eyes of the divine
merely by being better off
or worse off financially..

that because someone
is said to legally own the earth
that that gives them carte blanche
to do whatever they like with it
even if that means
chopping down the last tree
or driving the last species to extinction
all for personal financial gain
over the needs of the whole system
from the ecological to the spiritual
from the earth to the stars..

put another more positive way:

imagine that the world we live in today
is evolving into a globally aware,
energy sensitive,
species conscious world
based on respect for & recognition of
the natural precepts of the infinite universe

like:

everything is connected
to everything else
it's a whole system

everything is energy
everything is light & vibration
everything is awake & alive
everything matters
everything counts somehow

the universe loves everyone equally

every soul born
is welcome
in the universe
&
by the universe
for however long the universe
determines

every soul born deserves to be here

and is equally entitled to enjoy the full benefits
of the natural resources of the universe

what happens to one happens to all

[example:no hording allowed
or necessary
because it hurts everyone
including the hoarder
who is stuck on the illusion
of a reality of lack
in an infinite universe]

true happiness
is to be found in willfully
sharing
the journey

realizing fellowship

recognising spiritual kinship..

growth
even spiritual growth
comes through
the choice of empathy
& the earthly practise of compassion..

for a moment

just imagine an entire world based on the notion

that the universe is love...

the exit strategy

the exit strategy
for any so called endless war on terror
is
1. stop calling it that
2. treat would-be suicide bombers,
their handlers & support staff
as civil crime

we legitimize them otherwise
by making them opponents in a war

image what a different world it would be
if we had treated 9/11
as a criminal act

fellow human beings
who've lost the plot

confused souls
who've lost their way ...
?

james brown, gerald ford, saddam hussein

dot dot dot goes 2006
james brown
gerald ford
saddam hussein

who would've thought
these three
would be so linked

the cosmic joke
at play again
this could happen to you

the godfather of soul
oatmeal man
& the butcher of bagdad

for all those who
say things happen in threes
there you go

a year we'll look back on
& say dang
that was a tough one

people
will not be sad
to see this one go

as we all seem to be genuinely looking forward
to 2007 for some kind of deliverance
from a tough year in a series of tough years

not coincidentally
beginning with
geo. w. bush's reign

the best thing that happened this year
beside donald rumsfeld resigning
is the party of hubris got its come-up-ence

the pres. who sought to rule by force of will
by being the bully over the whole world
got put in his place

in so many ways
& now has been forced
to play fair & let others play with his ball...

i'm optimistic
as usual
i feeel there are great things happening

gerald & james
were done
full lives fine examples

aside from the ethical questions
of the compassion
of capital punishment

saddam the black sheep of the family
will go down as yet another shabby example
of the petty despot

the age old tale of
meteoric rise to personal folly
leading to national disgrace

as if
we haven't seen enough
like pinochet

i feel humanity has come to some consensus
we could call it the first general consensus
of the new millennium

& it goes
something
like this :

dictatorship
in any form
is a crime against humanity

punishable
by fate, destiny,
delusion & disgrace...

the world community
is complicite in this crime
by coddling the would-be dictators...

good idea not to raise our kids
to be dictators
not much future in it

good idea
to raise our kids
to be soul music icons

& one of the last
best examples of
president as public servants...

how many...

it seems
that the entire
cosmic
human
experiment
is
a test
to see
just exactly
how many
humans
killing
humans
does
it
take
for humanity
to completely
stop
killing...

i think
the universe
knows the answer
already
but
maybe
it could be wrong

the numbers game
of how many killed people
does it take to matter
in global politics
& media coverage
as a way of determining
the meaning of things
and to avoid realizing
the personal truth
of a human life destroyed
by other people

i envision a day in the near future
when we all realize
how everything is energy
and even the sound of an engine,
the flutter of a bird,
our thoughts, & intentions
are all felt by everyone
to the point where we
all of humanity
takes steps to be conscious
in our priorities
we base our technological choices
on the priorities of what is energetically
life affirming
our governmental actions
based on what is energetically
life affirming
[light years beyond any abortion debate]
our global economy
based on what serves
the furtherance of all life in the universe
?


itself

darfur

if the people being exterminated,
raped, & ethnicly cleansed
in the darfur region of sudan
by their government
through arab militias
were caucasians,
do you think
we
would
end
it
?

just think total energy independence

trying not to let this get me
but when president gwbush
formerly of the midland texas oilmans club
& vice president dick cheney
former ceo of haliburton
say things like
america has to break its addiction to oil

im like excuse me
its like the perpetrators blaming the victim

if every time someone has tried
to make a change in our dependence on oil
over the years it wasn't thwarted by these guys
& their friends
we'd all have been better off
just think
never have had 2 gulf wars
or be dealing with global warming
or have either of these clownish personalities
as public officials

how bout
instead of using fear
to stay in power & keep gas prices high
thru war [iraq, sudan, afghanistan]
& rumors of war
[iran, nigeria, syria, venezuela to name afew ]
to keep oil prices going up & up to $5 & $10 a gallon
& keeping people all caught up
in the endless shadow boxing
of the orwellian mythical
neverending war on terror..

cuz if there was peace in the middle east
how cheap would gas be?

wouldnt it be great if
anybody with an outside chance
to win the whitehouse next
like the democrats
decided to lead this country
in the direction of total energy independence
someone who actually got
what total energy independence would mean
for the future of this country
& the world... ?

but wouldn't it be wonderful
if we the people dedicated ourselves
to making our country
total energy independent
like
Brazil
?