taking_it_to_the_streets Dafremen You Keep telling me the things you're gonna do for me I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see Taking it to the streets... - "Taking It To The Streets" The Doobie Brothers What am I doing here? What am I protesting? I'm renouncing the way I live and changing my way of being, inviting all of these people and anyone else to join me on my way back to humanity. As for protest, I'm not protesting a damned thing. To protest I would have to disagree with something, yet allow it to remain, and what I disagree with I am rejecting entirely. I am rejecting the way that I have been taught that I must live, the way that we have all lived up to this time. You must have passed a thousand people on your way here to stop me, and yet you didn't see a single one of their faces. I reject your way of living for this, for it's emptiness and lack of substance. Look at this man. Look at this young woman. Do you really protect and serve THEM? Who ARE they? How can you protect and serve those whom you no longer take the time to care for and understand? How can you pick and choose those who you serve, and yet claim your right of dominion over those who you do not? WE are society, WE give you your power! Tread lightly, for our chains are almost severed. I am here, an AXE. I am here, a monkey with my hammer, to cut those chains and I will NOT be stopped, for there are hundreds of thousands like me all over the world, prepared to rise like some great wave of liberation to throw off these chains which our brothers and sisters were born into. How dare you claim to protect and serve us. You protect compliance and serve obedience. You are no friend of freedom, you are your master's whip. I REJECT the notion that I must be like you. I also reject the notion that I live in a world which is hostile to me as you have taught me to believe. If it was hostile to me it was because I was like you, and because it despises you and your kind. No, it is you and YOUR "society" which are hostile to me. You and the rules, laws and "dreams" which you chain to us from birth that are hostile to me, foreign to my human nature. YOU and the loyal disciples of callousness, hate and envy, THESE are my detractors and my enemies, THESE are your lackeys that shoot their petty venoms my way. They have lost their sway over me, and I will not flinch at their sarcastic words and their cynical tongue-in-cheek insults, for they now appear to me as they are, the groveling lap dogs of their master: your society and it's exalted way of being. I now REJECT that way of being, for it is YOUR dream, YOUR ideals, YOUR lunatic need for security which threatens the liberty that is my due inheritance. It is YOUR society's need for material gain at all costs that has enslaved so many of it's members in poverty, caged them with this twisted indifference that is our code of conduct. Those things are my enemies, I who would be free to treat my fellow man as his human birthright demands, as a human being. Having slowly made cold monsters and apathetic fools of us, THAT is not enough to satisfy your society.Your foolish onion-layered hypocrisies have built upon one another, until these tools-become-masters have us running in droves to starve or prostrate ourselves like animals in the cities. Dashing off to live like cattle in boxes and corrals, feeding and fornicating, pushing and trampling one another like mindless automatons driven by a "dream." WHAT DREAM?! You mean the dreamt up nightmare of productivity and profit which burns away our lives and fills our hands with empty dollars whose value depends upon our continued labor? Is THAT the dream you mean? The one you pump into our minds until we are so filled with wants and desires that your valueless currency sits as a whip in our hands, driving us endlessly TO that labor? Isn't it very telling how your masters hold THEIR currency? They sit with that same whip in their hands, enjoying the fruits of OUR labor without exerting any of the efforts. They sit fat and full of themselves watching the endless dance of human misery play out before them in the form of profits. How many have suffered for lack of a piece of green paper? Starved for a fence or a border around a hunting ground placed in their way by a hand filled with those same green pieces of paper? For a man's labor is not enough in this twisted parody of a life we live. He must have acceptance and the opportunities that come with it. He must have the good fortune to be born into good fortune. His hands and his back and his mind and his will are not enough to survive. His "freedom" is assured only through his obedience. His fate assured only by "going along with the plan", society's plan. He must have green paper in his hands or cheap metal coins in his pockets. Paper that he cannot eat and coins that will not keep him warm at night should society renig on that money's promised "value." Even THAT is not enough for your society. Slowly the paper and coins, which we can hold in our hands, are being replaced by ones and zeroes that YOU keep track of for us. Our chains are bound tighter with offerings of free wishes in the form of credit.You weaken our will to resist by constantly bombarding us with your messages to BUY, BUY, BUY! How can you claim to protect and serve US, when we burn away our lives each day for these nothings whose only REAL value is to be counted in the faces that we fail to see on our way to work each morning? If your society serves us, how are we its masters anymore? If your society is our protection, why are we still hurting so? For that matter, WHERE is there any danger to us OTHER than those caused by the concentrated power of society? I am NOT afraid of those dangers you would protect me from. I am not afraid of this WORLD. It is YOU that I have feared for so long oh long-arm-of-your-bloated-master, and I fear you no more. This steer has found his horns and they are named FREE and WILL. This worker will be penned up by your narrow beehive dreams no longer. With a thrust of my left I WILL defy your conventions, with a push of my right I shall be FREE from this illusory cage you've kept me in. Damn you and the necessity you CREATE by denying basic bread if we do not comply. I will not starve, for the world is WITH me, not against me. It will not hurt me, for it created me, but society? Society USES me. It is SOCIETY that rubs my back and pats my ass while it twists my arm. What am I doing here? I am ENDING this lunacy here and NOW. This is the beginning of the end for your archaic way of living. This is the beginning of a new era when men will hold what they earn and be free men, seeing their children born into freedom as well. It is the end of rewards for empty words and emptier deeds, a time when a man's worth to society is measured by the honor of his word, his value by the sincerity of his caring. It is the beginning of a time when we will again value the truly valuable; the beauty of human relationships, the closeness of personal interaction, the nobility of sacrifice. It is the end of society's urban power centers, centralized governments and the other tools of "human" greed. It is the beginning of human understanding, a time for all people, not just the chosen few. You few have had your time, you have enjoyed your power and your profiting from the rape and plunder of our character and our dignity. Enjoy the memory of your insanity, for it is OUR time now. Your time is over. 021101 ... jimmyjcd i always wondered - what happened? 030705 ... Dafremen Still at it man. : ) 030705 ... alicia keyed yea thats fine but where do we start? how? no matter what we do we will be forced back into societys way of doing things. if we dont give in we get crushed like little bugs. im all for changing things. but how? 030818 ... Bizzar And we march. We are a band of faceless minions marching to serve. To serve whom? A president who lies, and pretends to care about each of us individually. Nothing that is done is for us. Everything is about money. How can we make more money? How much suffering can we inflict upon helpless communities to get what we want? See that villiage over there, quietly going about their daily lives? Well we need their land, so kill them all. Who would have ever guessed that planet of such beauty, a planet so amazing that it can support the life of such intelligent beings would grow away from a peaceful way of life, to be ruled by pieces of paper, consumed by greed and the strive for power. Who would think that these intelligent beings would use their brains in such ridiculous ways, to create machines to kill for the simple purpose of money, instead of realizing what is truly going on around us. When the human body becomes infected, our immune system creates antibodies to fight off the intruders. What do you think AIDS and cancer are? Earth’s antibodies, to rid itself of the treacherous anomalies that are killing it slowly. And the government creates vaccines for these viruses, and are thriving to make a cure… for what? So we can live longer, so we are consumers longer, so we make more money just to spend it on ridiculous possessions that we don’t need... longer. Its time to strike while the knowledge is flowing. The return to innocence, to the primitive ways of life. Fuck your tv and your radio, fuck the news that teaches you to fear the ground you walk on. Fuck corporate America. Rid yourself of the lies they’ve taught you to believe is reality. The only true reality is what you make of the truth. All you need in this life is yourself. Yes it is true that we may not live to see a change in this lifetime, but we can start the revolution. I am living proof. I was too a mindless drone marching in this pointless life. I was given the truth over and over only to ignore it because I was too lazy to care. But my enlightenment has arrived. Share the knowledge, word gets around. We are a people. We outnumber them in great amounts. This war is ours to be won. And it starts with you. 030822 ... Bizzar Daf... I hope you dont mine me adding to your post... you have inspired me. 030822 ... misstree goes truer to her roots... no pun intende i have always seen the shimmering outlines of the hell we are taught to idolize, but fear and despair have made me shut my own eyes tight... knowing that i am not alone, that the rumbling in the human heart grows daily louder, gives me courage to not only open my own eyes, but the eyes of those i can touch. it is not easy, it does not lend to vast or quick results. but for each life that i have touched, have shoved, have wakened, there is a rippling of others... we are taught that one voice is so small, so lost, that it is easier to go about our daily sleepwalking pleasures than to stand up and fight and shout and face the rage of the gale... but look around you... look at ten people... if there is one shouting of this ten, being joined by another would double their strength, and by one more would triple it. our last presidential "election" could be easily said to be determined by the decision of one person out of fifty. if you will not be one, you choose to be nothing. to be one of one, to squeeze your eyes shut and hide your heart and passion, you will be a bird never to leave the shell. to be one of many, to swell those numbers, can bring about an awakening from this nightmare, can drive the devil from the front of the coach so we may feel the reigns in hands calloused by work once more. so we can see with our own eyes once more, rather than cathode tubes driven by greed and lust and lies. so we can once again call ourselves brave and free without being ashamed for being neither. be one. there are others to join you, already allied or not. look into people's eyes, speak to them, wake them again to scents and touches and realness, bring them past the veil of comfortable lies, and show them the terrors clinging to their own skin in their blindness. shout. our voices will become loud enough to wake the whole world. 030822 ... oldephebe misstree - you have belched your flame, you're living torch upon the dead heavens breast, and my eyes are wet, once people come in contact with souls like yours, they will began to break out, emerge from the crysalis of conformity, the amber and dross that we have subsumed our true natures to, you've reached me - we will find the sun again and the tender and weak among us will be imbued, transfigured by touching upon our true nature, transfigured by the power of souls such as yours and Daf and Bizaar - truth springing up from the ground, looking around - leaning and growing into the sun - and know that now they are truly alive, - hew one down and like the resilience of dandelion spores humanity - true humanity seeped in these springs will push up through the obdurate soil, rend the sod, seek out the new day, set down its roots and will not be moved from its place - you continue to astonish me with each new apect of yourself you reveal - all of you - By my life! I am alive and I will grow - that is what will be said to the liberated soul - It is not better to conform, than to Be! All the towers of tyranny throughout time have been toppled by the courage of one soul arguing, challenging, and finally uniting his/her brothers and sisters to tear down the very sky so that there is no place for tyranny or the great lie to hide - tyrannies cage will be wrent asunder once more .. fear? yes fear..feel it know it and let it vault you into the advesarys throat.. the battle cry, the warrior bred, here it begins the new inculcation - another incarnation - small fires of enlightenment, of will, of an emboldened and new found surety - slowly but surely ablating the Dark, thank you for sharing that truth, may it propogate profligately, we have hurled your mirrors against the walls and have endowed our own eyes to see - Yes it is a surety, this - will - be 030822 ... misstree as an aside, once this was written i typed up a preface for it, below, and sent it to those closest to me, with instructions to send it to any it could possibly inspire, adding their own words as they could, with a link back to this page... with the countless bullsh!t chain letters that fly around in the aether every day, i figured i'd put my email where my mouth is, and see if i could spread some ripples beyond here. if any want to take what i have written (i can't speak for anyone else) and do the same, the mountains will tremble all the sooner. the biggest enemy of life is silence. oh yeah, the preface was: a thread on blather ignited this, but the fuel was laid when yesterday out of 11 people on break, four said that they definitely did vote, four said nothing, and three said they did not. one person said that they didn't vote because of the indiscriminate party favoritism of another (voting straight democrat or republican). i don't think that person really Heard me when i told them that their vote could cancel out the one they disagreed with. i don't think anyone who had already made up their minds to be apathetic, to have their opinion count for nothing, heard me when i said that they represented, simply in that group, more than a quarter of the citizens in the US, that in such proportions their voices can very much be heard. i don't think they understood the power of individuals united, and i don't think they want to understand. i don't often write opinionated rants anymore, but i feel very passionately about this one; i no longer believe that the apocalypse of my youth is coming, but i do see more clearly the hell we are taught is a comfortable home. if there is anyone that you know, *anyone*, who you think this can touch, send it to them. the discontented own no television stations; we air no commercials. we are marginalized, we are put in shadows and called ridiculous or dangerous. shouting back is the only way we can be heard. i am one voice. add your own words if you can, and let the voices of real people, not just consumers or sleepers or cardboard cutouts, carry until its echos shake the walls. i send this to the people that i care about, that i trust to care, even if just enough to read it. i ask of every one of you as a friend to spread this. this particular rant can be found at http://blather.newdream.net/t/taking_it_to_the_streets.html with a few other very good writings. thank you for hearing me. 030822 ... I read this 030822 ... Dafremen I'm moved almost to the point of tears, by the sound of distant thunder. The slow, steady rumble of a peaceful, determined, juggernaut approaches. To the gist of me I am moved, dare I say: suddenly hopeful? No, there is nothing sudden about the surety of this coming change. It has lingered in our hearts and on our lips for decades, possibly millenia. Yet though it were perhaps always there, it has been muted, a heart's whisper. Truth's testimony stifled in our youth by societal conditioning. We are taught to believe that lie as children. All of those rules that made no sense back then? Many of them STILL make no sense, but what's a parent to do? We TOO are products of this conditioning. It goes back as far as human history. One of the first things we teach our children to do in order to assimilate socially is to lie. They see us tell a hundred a day. They are often ASKED to lie for us, so as not to hurt Aunt Bessie's feelings or what-not. It has become so natural to lie, in some form or another (including half-truths) that even the seemingly most stalwart and honest of us have learned to be less than honest or pay the consequences. (Again consequences created by and taught to us by society.) We teach our children that in order to succeed, you must have things. Shiny things. Pretty things. Powerful things. Fast things. Exciting things. EXPENSIVE things. We teach them that it is better to trade your life for a bank vault full of paper, than it is to spend it LIVING. We show them how it is done too, by throwing their childhood away on our two-income illusion. "We did it for you!", we say. Then we buy little Johnny a toy or a treat, or we take him to Disneyland or to the movies. "WHATEVER you saw on TV that you want the MOST little Susie! Whatever Mommy & Daddy can afford." So we try to make up for the life we did not LIVE with our children by throwing more paper at them. Is it any wonder that so many young people these days equate what a person is willing to spend on you with how much they love you? Is it any wonder that they learn to believe the lie that we have wasted our lives away living? Is it any wonder that these young ones will chase after those dollars with as much zeal as we did? Is it any wonder that our grandchildren will have all of the toys that they could ever want, but none of the time and attention that they need...and are entitled to? Of course it's no surprise..not while, as our friend BizzAr has put it, we march. On and on, like zombies we march. We must make sure our dollars are worth something for future days until we've no more days left. We must secure the value of the dollars that we already have, by continuing to sell our lives away for more of them. If we stop working, the nation's exports drop. The value of our money is tied DIRECTLY to the economy's exports..to our continued labor. It's not backed by a lump of metal. It's not backed by anything of value except maybe the days of our lives. Priceless and irreplaceable as our days may be, they are cheap and common when spent the way that we spend them. We are workers filling slots that will be filled by other workers after we have moved on. Those aren't phebe the cobbler's shoes, famous across the land! They are Nikes and who knows who made that pair or how long they will last? Who cares? Those aren't misstree's prize-winning pies, (the sort people make day long trips to get because they're THAT good, and SHE'S an excellent hostess.) No, they are pies with factory-cut crusts. Pies that are mass produced by various faceless drones at a Baker's Square near you. There was a time that we put love into the things we did, because it was OUR name and reputation and because we were spending OUR time to do it, often for people we knew and perhaps even cared about. Now there is no reason for the producers to care. The customers are counted in the millions, dollars in the billions and trillions. The number of workers? All of them. Their compensation? Food, clothing, shelter and an evening's television PROGRAMMING. "What about the vacation we got to go on? That's one of the BENEFITS of society." What were you running away from that you needed to take a vacation? Shouldn't that tell you something about how you feel about where you are when you're not escaping? Not running from anything? Just wanted to see new places? Do new things? So why would you choose to spend almost half of your waking hours in the SAME office or factory? Seeing and doing the SAME things over and over? Dying on a schedule. Time is ripe for us to turn away from this lunacy and reclaim humanity for the human race. How many generations have been robbed of the life and liberty that is their rightful inheritance, simply because noone care to do anything about it? Must we count ourselves among those who cared less about the future of the human race than about our piles of money? I refuse to believe that, and the coming times will prove: Faith in the common heart and will of the human race is not misplaced. Yes, I believe it's coming, people: The winds of change bearing the storm clouds of revolution and her cleansing rains. I have no doubt that each of us here will feel that downpour upon our faces, see it wash the mud from the eyes of our people, the darkness from our system, and its filth from our hearts. I'm so glad that we've all decided to walk this way together. The approaching storm has been a long time coming, and perhaps the echo of our tiny rumblings will serve to temper the impatience of impatient souls that grow weary of waiting for a better way. turning_away 030822 ... Dafremen Somewhere not so long ago, in a discussion group far, far away.... Richard, Your words CONSTANTLY lie about your age...with such insight, you should be a hundred years old by now. Indeed, the bus driver was a cuplrit, but he is also a victim. We are ALL co-conspirators in this mess. There is no secret sect that pulls our puppet strings. No, the reality is even more terrifying: The BEAST is a way of living out of control. It is not a man or many men, it is this system that we accept as is, with an eye toward change, but hearts enslaved by the relentless grinding of the machinery. The BEAST is our voluntary submission to this way of living for fear that to step out of it, means suffering and inconvenience. We are a people of convenience any more. I wrote something about that once, something to the effect that we have bought the notion that more convenient means better, and that this is a lie that has caused us to give up goods for gold, gold for paper and paper for nothing...for digital pits and peaks on some hard drive somewhere that bankers own, and which bankers control. I will look for that piece and post it here. Originally this piece was call Daffy_Nation, because at the time I hadn't made the 11 connection and I was looking to build a group dedicated to unity. I liked the way the name sounded, not so much because it used my nick, but because it described so well the idea of a group of people that the rest of the world might view as working, believing and thinking UPSIDE down. But it isn't upside down...on the contrary, it is quite side up, and it is a dream that I believe we all share..yes even michael and I still share a dream, although we may not see eye to eye on how it will be achieved. A DREAM, do0d. No...not a dream...a GOAL. I have no idea what happened between the two of us, but that will not kill the dream, for the dream is bigger than either one of us or our petty squabbles and we all know that. The dream is in all of us that care and that would pass something on to our children that is more: their freedom ,their character and their dignity. There is something called The Golden Era of mankind down below. Those are my beliefs and they are my convictions. I want that and I will spend the rest of my life working for that. I've already begun taking this to the streets and the response has been positive, yet disturbingly muffled. I quit a VERY lucrative gig, because it was lucrative in ways that left my pockets full, but my soul empty. I am fortunate to have a very supportive wife who also wants better for our children, and who would not see a man who was blessed with the gifts necessary to make a difference, HER man..waste his life and talents away making some rich men richer. I met a man during my wanderings, a guy named Jose. It was a random meeting, unrelated to what I was doing. It was probably one of the most significant conjunctions that has occurred in the last 13 years of my life. We instantly clicked, and sat for hours and hours talking and comparing notes. In those discussions, we found that we shared a few beliefs that are INCREDIBLY relevant to what (I feel anyhow) this group is trying to do. Some of these were: 1. Where people come together, those are the proper directives of unity...where there is division, there you will find the unnatural directives of man and the system. This fits in perfectly with my observation that the system thrives on a machiavellian impulse. 2. It is NOT necessary to gain at the cost of another. On the contrary, there is PLENTY for all. The world is good to us, created us, provides all we need. Wide profit margins are a lie and a hoax that has been ingrained into our collective conscious. (Both Jose and I believe in buying cheaper and selling cheap..regardless of what the market will bear.) We should take only what we need to provide for ours. This is not stupidity...it is an act of self-preservation. What extra I put in my pocket, is food taken from the mouth of my brother and his children. It is one less pair of shoes for his children, or one less loaf of bread for that week. Add up the loaves. What I take from the mouth of my kin, I have taken from my own belly. 3. Religious organizations are gathering places for people that want to believe in something and who are looking for a better way. They are not the vendors of the religion, but it's consumers. MANY of them consume religion, because the alternative is belief in a system that even those among us who ARE NOT religious cannot stomach. It is AGAINST the directives of unity that we judge them for their choice, just as it is against the directives of unity that those unfamiliar with 11 should call US insane crackpots. We are simply those who seek a better way, as are the believers in religion. All religion therefore, serves a purpose, and although that purpose may be distorted and twisted by the divisive and selfish purposes of men, it is still what it is: a place where those of like heart and like mind gather..seeking a way out of this madness. There they are...just waiting for something without the failings of their faith...something real to believe in that will provide them with that way out. We would be fools to disregard them. 4. Nothing will get done if we just talk about change. We can talk until we are blue in the face, but ideas are like air..they transport change, but they do not effect it. Ideas may light the fires in our hearts, but while they are burning brightly, if we continue to throw the matches that are ideas into the flame, instead of the kindling and hardwood of ACTION, eventually, the fire will die...and we will just be tossing matches into an empty fire pit. ACTION will bring our dream out of the realm of dreams and into the realm of the REAL. Our children can already run freely through their dreams...what they CANNOT do is run freely through their lives. Our children can already stand tall and proud in their dreams, what they are not allowed to do is stand tall and proud within their own society. In the end, slaves do not stand tall...they submit. As time goes by and we dream and dream and dream some more..eventually, our time will run out, and we can pass on to our descendants that which was passed on to us. Jose and I have decided that we "ain't going out like that." We'll be driving down the Baja California peninsula on Sunday, taking the message of unity to anyone that will hear it. Not a set of beliefs, or a set of rules, but unity. Just like michael likes to say...we will show them one, and those whose minds allow their hearts the opportunity to choose, will either swallow the message of Unity or they will spit it out. We are not preachers, we are not politicians, we are not salesmen. We are fruit trees. A fruit tree does not decide who is and isn't worthy of it's offerings..it offers equally to all, the corrupt and the honest alike. It is THERE to take, and whether they don't or do, is theirs to decide. Likewise, the fruit tree doesn't HURL its fruit at others, but simply provides the opportunity. We will ACT today, because we have spent a LIFETIME dreaming. The time for ideas and discussions has come and gone, and too bad if we didn't get to hear everything. The monkey has a hammer now, and he cannot wait until time takes even THAT from him. He must strike out NOW, and although he doesn't know what he will do with this newfound power(freedom and knowledge) and the conviction it has brought him. He must do something or he will die having done NOTHING. I am that simian missile, so are we all. We have been awakened, THAT is our hammer. What will we do with it? Who knows, perhaps we will have to wing it...but we'll never know, until we try to SWING it. 11:11 Daf 031006 ... Bespeckled / Pralines Daf, Friend, mentor, and totally awesome do0d , You and I both know that despite all of our talking about this subject, I have stood at the sidelines, watching your face on the field as you begin to bend the rules mid-game. I've been commentating, questioning, sincerely curious and truly receptive, but I haven't yet donned my uniform and joined the team. I say "yet," because I know that, just as your time has come, my time is coming. I made a conscious effort a few years ago to follow the golden rule. I taught myself to see the best in people, even when faced with the worst, to help out friends and enemies in need, to never consider anybody an enemy (I may be their enemy, but they are never mine), to offer assistance that hasn't been asked for, to cater to the poor, the sad, the angry, the ugly, the rejected, the tired, the lonely as much as to the rich, the beautiful, the proud, the confident, the "happy." Now, these efforts are subconscious, second nature, natural reactions to everyday life, and that makes me glad - glad that I've made great strides in becoming the good, loving person that I want to be, rather than simply pretending to be. It makes me glad because when people treat me with love - the kind of love that is unconditional, unquestionable, unrelenting - I feel glad to be a human, and glad to be in a world with people like them. These are the people that I admire most: those who can treat everyone they meet with kindness, compassion, love, Respect. That is the person I aspire to be. This diatribe hasn't been completely off-topic. I hope you see that I've been working on a plan of action myself, one that is admittedly much more centralized, much more subtle, much more selfish, than yours. Yet these are the thoughts that are filed under "Major Priority - Important" in my brain, the file that pops open to hold me accountable on nights when I can't fall asleep easily. Having said this, I now react to yours. What you think and what you do fills me with an optimism I can't quite describe - I think we're after the same thing, Daf, yet I never bothered to spread the message to anything other than my own heart, hoping that my smile and my open arms would speak for themselves. You may consider this a hopeless quest (or of course you may not). Yours is obviously more aggressive, more DETERMINED, more DEMANDING of the selflessness that we'd all like to think we have. And in acknowledging this, I am left, I am sad and a little ashamed to say, a little frightened. You see, I WANT to spread your message, I WANT the people of this nation and this world to prosper (not with money, but with contentment, satisfaction, attainment beyond materialism) like they deserve to, I WANT the pursuit and attaining of happiness to be a reality. Yet, something holds me back, which, after talking with you, and reading things like TAKING_IT_TO_THE_STREETS, and AWAKENED, and DAFFY_NATION, I think I can now put my finger on. Daf, I say this with my tail between my legs. I want for nothing - materially, emotionally, or spiritually. I'm honestly at an ideal place - in your world, in my world, and in society's world. I don't know how to identify with those who know what they're missing and yearn for it with everything they have. What advice can I give to the poor man? What message can I spread to the disabled and neglected? How can I pursue the goal of society's overlooked with the same passion and jubilation, having never been in their shoes, never been deprived of those natural rights that every human being is entitled to, never forced to go beyond my own home and heart to find what I need to make a better life? I suppose the answer to my questions has been, until now, to embrace the mantra that I detailed above, to forge ahead, alone, optimistic, kind and ready to help, hoping it will spread subtly. But is that enough? I want to make things better, but how? I want to help. And now I am left here with a desperate question ... how can I begin? 031008 ... Dafremen First of all love, your quest for self improvement is NOT selfish in any way, shape or form. No, dear, my first suggestion to each and every member of the other group and to the people on this forum and to EVERYONE that would listen or wouldn't has always been this: You are BROKEN. You are the product of a broken system and therefore share it's inherent flaws and failings. Enough of the "you're damaged goods" stuff, though. You've done good chicklette, and you're off to an amazing start, BRAVO for you!! Secondly, I must say, that I understand your dilemma. I have been well to do myself, have made great money, had a beautiful house, several cars, imported beer every night and sirloin steak and hot pockets till they were oozing out my ears and my butt had ballooned to 210lbs. (Not that anything that beastly would ever happen to you : ) ) I wrote something somewhere about the solution for the well to do as well as the not so well to do: Feel for your fellow man because you have walked in his shoes, or because you are thankful that you have never had to. Look at the needless suffering of people everywhere and realize either the relief of having been sheltered, or sip the grief of your memories. It's even more than that, it isn't just the poor that are hurting love. Try to remember the children growing up without parents in the two income charade. Think of the two people who are arguing over nothing more than the fact that one has found a God and the other has found Science. Each has his religion, each despises the other's religion. Why? Again, turn your mind to the fact that each and every one of us, strained carrot by mashed banana, steak by french fry are made of earth...the SAME warm earth. Turn your mind to the fact that each of us has this limited amount of time to enjoy the gift and the glory and the MIRACLE that is life and then we will all return to the same cold ground. Put those two facts into a billion year time frame and realize, that we are one and the same. You are of me, and I am of you and there is nothing standing between our happiness for this brief chance_to_dance, but each other. Period. Imagine a hand with many fingers. Imagine that the Earth is the body, and the human race is that hand. Imagine that YOU are one of the fingers on that hand, and your worst enemy is another. Imagine one finger beating the other down. Down hard..til it bleeds and hurts. Imagine the screams of the Earth, imagine it's pain and it's incredulity at watching this ridiculous display of division within the confines of what should be a symbiotic relationship. How STUPID would we look from a REALISTIC instead of a HUMANCENTRIC perspective? Is that what you want for your children? Is that what you want to leave behind for the others that will come after you? Has human life been so cheapened, that it must be reduced to a hazing ritual in which we expect those that follow us to pay the same insane dues that we ourselves were forced to pay? Let's imagine even closer to home..is that what you want for YOUR next incarnation here? (You're going back into the pot, as am I, and we will no doubt return.) Are you willing to return to the hell that is senseless violence and division? Or would you prepare this place for your return to a heaven on earth? Would you return to a funeral procession that burns away your life and that of those around you? Or would a lifelong celebration be more to you liking? Would you be wrapped in warmth? Or left out in the cold, surrounded by economic, intellectual, emotional and sexual predators? If we don't change it, while the power and the life is in OUR hands, we must trust that the following generation will do so. No doubt, this is the same faith that the generation already passed before us, has placed in us. And now, enough of this. There are your reasons, now to the second step. The step beyond self-repair and deprogramming..getting things STARTED: Take this message to people: Where people are brought together in cooperation, goodwill and concern for one another, there you will find the TRUE and natural works of unity. From these works spring the best of which mankind is capable. This is the way that will secure our future and that of our descendants. Where people are divided and pitted against each other, no matter HOW benignly, there you will find the unnatural acts of man, his ego and the system. These are the cause of our misery, strife, wars and the divisions between us. This is the way that will secure our demise and take the blessing of human existence away from all future generations. Simple message. The hard part is doing it. Because people will no doubt think that you are a lunatic if you tell them this. Yet, those are only some of them. I have been taking my DREAM to them(http://revealments.tk), because if nothing else, it is a key for grabbing their attention that has curiosity appeal, at best, it is a sign that this guy ain't kidding and some strange cosmic stuff is afoot. Perhaps, it starts for you with this idea that Jose and I had... People_in_the_Park: Perhaps it starts with inviting all those that would listen to meet in a certain picnicky place at a certain picknicky time, bringing their families and whatever food they can pack for a big picknicky lunch. Those that cannot add food or drink, bring themselves and nothing more. There, for one day, for a few hours, it is agreed that there will be no talk of division. Any disagreements will not be discussed, and when they pop up, they will be quickly forgotten in favor of comeradery, the laughter of the children, the good food and the smiling faces. Just for a few hours. To show that we can. To show that we want to. To show that we CAN care for one another again. To show that we DO share a common vision for what we CAN be, if we are only willing to set our egos and our divisions aside and embrace our commonalities in a unified way. Perhaps change the location each time so that those who would take advantage and prey upon our generosity can only take advantage once. There is enough for all, and those that believe in that ideal, will not take advantage of it. (Perhaps you DON'T change the location and just let the generosity grow right along with the greed. Until it is HUGE. Just remember that many people are still BROKEN love, and will bring division to destroy that which is beautiful.) Perhaps it's that simple love. Perhaps it's as simple as two short stocky guys, one white, one Latino, going from church, to mosque, to synagogue to kingdom hall to temple, spreading the idea of unity. Perhaps. I hope this has helped. You know where to find me darlin. I will back you to the bitter end in anything you would do to further this cause..for it is OUR cause. Not yours, not mine, but all of us, even those who do not believe in it. They haven't seen that vision. How could they possibly believe in something which they cannot envision and which they have been told again and again is IMPOSSIBLE? ("You can't fight the system." "Can't fight city hall." "Where one gains, another loses.") We will be that vision, and soon..THEY will join us too. Having seen Shangri-La with their own two eyes, who would return to Babylon? 031008 ... endless desire i feel honored to read the words of those who desire to spread such a beautiful message. i suppose it's the simple things that allow me to remember the good people. . .and allow me to remember that the good has been there all along, yet for some reason, i've been too distracted to see it. though, it's hard to smile at frowning faces. i smile there, making eye contact, and hope to see a little difference. a smile in return or even a look or a nod or any gesture. but so often there's nothing. maybe i should question my orignal motive. was it to brighten anothers day? or was it to make my own better? would it be wrong to seek both? 031008 ... Dafremen No. Unity wouldn't expect or ask for any less than mutual satisfaction. 031009 ... Dafremen Well folks..here I go. Wish me luck. It's time_2_do_this thing. 11:11 Daf 031012 ... realistic optimist i wish you the best of luck and many unexpected smiles on your journey. i know you will build an empire of hope wherever you go. 031012 ... Dafremen Thanks for the kind thoughts, but I won't build anything. There is no I in this dream..only US. And WE can do anything, once we realize that simple fact. 031015 ... Bizzar "If the people lead, eventually the leaders will follow" 031021 ... . 050315 ... bob marley my fear is my only courage and so ive got to push on through 050404 ... Christ without the cross Many people have done this throughout the ages. This is not the first attempt. There have been many who have risen up to fight the system that oppressed them. There have been many who have fought for freedom and liberty and justice for all. This was the birth of The United States of America. I have heard of many revolutions and have seen many passionate people and the words of this page inspire me for a better way, a better life, and a new order. But i must warn. We must not do this by force. We ust not do this in struggle. It must be in love. We do not want this force to leak over into the new world we wish to create. We do not want to replace one form of oppression with another. That is what has happened for thousands of years. If this is a new way, let it truly be new. Let us live by example. Let us live the way that has been spoken about here but not in such a way as to over power what exists through force. let us be a light to the world but not a fire to put the world into flames. Ideas are many. They populate are minds and our world. We are not simply trying to replace one idea with another. Indeed that is what we have been doing all this time. We are here to allow people to choose and to accept there choices. We are here to spread a message but also to accept all messages that differ to our own. What we are here to do is to spread unconditional love in which everyone may have the power and the freedom to choose there own path. We are not adopting a new idea as universal. We are making freedom universal. Pure freedom. Absent of force, fear, or manipulation. True freedom. Not another version of the illusion of freedom. That is all i have to say. 061101 ... cosmicmode lets take our love to the streets where people watch and stare although they won't care, why or how we ended up together. it only matters that you're close to me. and that you always will be. 080527 ... we are not alone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hjXmRLGr-c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shVzmMF9CBk 080810 ... zzz33333 wow, fucking awesome! 080810 ... daf What took you so long? ; ) 111005 ... unhinged urban_bodhisattva 111005 ... daf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p91XP3B8Mb8 111103 ... daf DIVIDED WE FALL, PEOPLE. LET'S STOP BICKERING ABOUT DEM/REPUB LIB/CONSERV LONG ENOUGH TO GET THE SNAKES OUT OF WASHINGTON. IT'S APPRECIATED. THANKS. On to the post: I tried to explain to people, that a profitable corporation pays NOTHING for production. The customer (the public) pays EVERYTHING. To a corporate bean counter..you are a free slave. The difference? You've been talked into maintaining your own living situation, providing your own meals, your own medical care, your own clothing, your own transportation to and from the fields. (Don't think they don't still beat us and put us in chains, folks. Try NOT complying with a police officer. That should correct any mistaken notion you have about that.) And all of this is paid for with the pittance you were given in return for the days of you life (which you CANNOT buy back) until the workforce simply HAS no monetary power..its all been used up externalizing industries' "slave" care costs. Even those of you who consider yourself "doing well" are simply the "house slave." You get a tuxedo and some white gloves, and have access to the better foods on the inside of our master's house that's all. You're a PREFERRED slave. And if you're obedient enough, prove to the master that you're more loyal to his wants than those of your fellow slaves, then you can become a field master. Congrats. That's why I'm saying: "Hey, as Americans, aren't we better off getting the skills to keep ourselves and our families alive and happy rather than going to the factories, offices and labs for money, then buying all of our needs at inflated cost, back from the field masters of industry and the plantation owners of banking?" Aren't we better off teaching ourselves SELF RELIANCE rather than being dependent on an economy controlled by greedy bankers and corrupt politicians? Isn't it more useful to spend your time building your dream house (a year of labor? maybe?) Instead of slaving away for 30 years to pay off a mortgage? (Cheers to those of you who have actually SURVIVED a 30 year mortgage.) Doesn't it make more sense to produce the food you and yours need, rather than relying on someone else for those things? What will the look in our children's eyes be..when we come home empty-handed one night, because the man with the food, decided he's done sharing? It's already starting to happen..with the guy who has the gas. And the electricity. And the guy with the water. Watch those prices sky rocket folks..and WHAT exactly are we going to do about it? Get SELF RELIANT..that's all we can do. Get tough, resilient. Get back to being not Dems and Pubs or Libz And Conservs or Communists or Anarchists.. Just get back to being Americans. Brave, strong...INDEPENDENT each of us individually. Daniel Boone. Davy Crockett, Lewis and Clark, Horace Greeley, The American Colonists carving out a life in the wilderness, taking us west through unknown, unkempt lands. Self-reliant. Strong. Brave. Independent. American. Love, -- 120507 what's it to you? who go blather from