Je Suis L’Homme March 22, 2016

But, by all means, come out of the closet, if you’re in one.

I’m an outspoken atheist, have been for years, but I don’t claim to have come out of a closet. I was in a big room. Just me. No religion. An only child. Playfully– one day–I  knocked down the walls and set myself free.

My father had sent me to the nuns to be raised and I loved them.  Wonderful teachers.  They were all in love with my father who brought them flowers and made them smile. They were happy women. About in the fourth grade all my  friends took First Communion. They wore white dresses and veils and married god or something–I never quite understood–and I felt left out. So I asked,  “Could I become a Catholic?” He answered. “Yes. When you’re old enough to find out what it’s all about.”

When I found out what it was ‘all about’, I said, ” I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole.”  So off I went in a thousand different directions. Strangely enough, it was an Irish Priest, Father O’Connell who I met–befriended, shared a beer with on the porch of the Manila Yacht Club– who sent me on my way to freedom. He dubbed me a ‘free soul’–a phrase I liked– and knew nothing about, but the more I learned the more I loved the idea.

When the walls came down I found myself surrounded by other bipeds. Related to the apes.  Chimps. Monkeys without tails. Darwin got in the act.

I found human beings. So beautiful. Skin white and black and brown and yellow and pink and every color in-between. Eyes  blue and green and gray and brown, snapping and flashing with intelligence. Hair a vast assortment of shades.  Red. Yellow. Black. Brown. They painted.  They wrote. Composed music. Danced and sang.  Young and old and in-between.  Male and female and other preferences. Once I knew a homosexual stallion. (They’re unipeds.)  He liked boys not girls. Never bothered me.

Humans think, therefore we are. Carry no guns. Carry no flag. We’re citizens of the world.   “Breathes there no human with heart so dead who never to herself has said, This is my home, my planet earth.”

So, if you chose to be a Klansman–hide your face and wear a white robe–burn a cross.  Come out.  We’ll stand on the sidelines and watch you pass.

If you’re a witch who needs to be exorcised, talk to Sarah Palin. She’ll arrange one. We’ll stand on the sidelines and watch.

If you ‘re a nazi, wear a brown shirt– easy to find–and goose step. Tattoo a swastika on your forehead for all we care. We’ll stand on the sidelines and watch.

Strap on a bomb and blow yourself and others to smithereens. Why not start with each other? We’ll stand on the sidelines and watch.

I’m proud to be related to the Chimp. Wonder if she’s happy to be related to me?

 

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Sarah and Trump and Chattel February 3, 2016

Chattel. What a word. it does not roll trippingly off the tongue. There’s a darkness about it. It means possession of something. Cars, cattle, women…

Today is a wonderful time for Western women. I wouldn’t care to be a Muslim woman in a long black veil–in which she can vote with a green thumb–if she can see through the slits. Sharia law?  Her hair must be covered and you shouldn’t see her feet. Allah commands. What’s the guy got against feet and hair?

In America women are speaking out. Seems to me they’re more concerned about the future–the children, the environment, the health of the planet–than men.

Women on Kauai are vocal in complaining about GMO’s, air-born toxins, over-crowded, wrongly sited milk factories, more cars, more highways, more suburban sprawl, tourist, global warming, CO2.

I love articulate, intelligent, out-spoken women. I love their involvement in the goings-on. “The world crisis came about without women having anything to do with it. If the women of the world had not been excluded from affairs, things today might have been different.” That’s Alice Paul before the passage of the 18th Amendment. I suggest you find the film, Iron Jawed Angels. Watch it. Share it. We owe so much to this courageous young woman. We need more like her. If you must identify with a female figure, identify with Alice.

Today, of course, women often play an important role in politics and law. Think of Sarah Palin. An example of female evangelism gone sick.  Tried her hand in politics. Darling of the religious right. Well, she’s baaacckk. Slithered in with Trump. What a pair. Hope you watched her exorcism on youtube. Bishop Thomas Muthee, Word of Faith Churches in Kenya. It’s an insult to human intelligence.

Which brings us back to chattel

Biblical quotes work here. Ecclesiasticus 15:18, 19 & 33. “And a man will choose–any wickedness but the wickedness of a woman…Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die.”

The history of women as chattel is woven into many legal codes and cultures. In the Old and the New Testament as well as the Quran. Women are property. There’s a world-wide dominion over women. In fundamental patriarchal religious societies, that live by the word, women are valued as objects. A husband owns his wife…

…so she better shut up and do as told.

A quote from Augustine Aquinas is enlightening. In Summa Theologica he wrote, “As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex, while the production of a woman comes from the defect in the active power…”

Augustine is a Catholic Saint so I assume he resides in a Catholic heaven. As a devout non believer, who does not believe in heaven or hell, I pen a brief note.

“Dear Auggie, to spend all eternity with you would be hell.”

What do you think?

 

 

 

Sarah and Trump and Chattel September 6, 2014

 

Chattel. What a word. It does  do not roll trippingly off the tongue. There’s a sense of darkness about it.  It means possession of something. Cars, cattle, women…

…Today is a wonderful time for Western women. I wouldn’t care to be a Muslim woman in a long black robe–in which she can vote with a green thumb–if she can see through the slits. Sharia law?  Her hair must be covered and you shouldn’t see her feet, Allah commands.  What’s the guy got against hair and feet?

In America many women are speaking out. Seems to me they’re  more concerned about the future–the children, the environment, the health of the planet–than men.

Women on Kauai are  vocal in complaining about GMOs, air-borne toxins, over-crowded, wrongly sited milk factories,  more cars, more highways, more suburban sprawl, tourists, global warming and CO2.

I love articulate, intelligent, out-spoken women.  I love their involvement in the goings-on. “This world crisis came about without women having anything to do with it. If the women of the world had not been excluded from affairs, things today might have been different.” That’s  Alice Paul before the passage of the 19^th Amendment. I suggest you find the film Iron Jawed Angels.  Watch it. Share it. We owe so much to this courageous young woman. We  need more like her. If you must identify with a female figure, identify with Alice.

Today, of course, women often play important roles in politics and law. Think of Sarah Palin. An example of female evangelism gone wrong. Trying her hand at public office. She’s baaaccckkk.  Slithered in with Trump.  What a pair. Hope you watched her exorcism ritual on the tube. Bishop Thomas Muthee, Word of Faith Churches in Kenya. It’s an insult to human intelligence.

Which brings us back to chattel.

Biblical quotes  work here. Ecclesiasticus 25:18, 19 &33. “And a man will choose…any wickedness, but the wickedness of a woman…Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die.”

Really?

The history of women as chattel is woven into many legal codes and cultures. In the Old and New Testament as well as the Quran. Women are property. There’s a world- wide dominion over women. In fundamental patriarchal religious societies that live by the word women are valued as objects. A husband owns his wife…

…and she better shut up and do as told.

A quote from Augustine Aquinas is enlightening: in Summa Theologica, he wrote, “As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex, while the production of a woman comes from the defect in the active power…”

Augustine  is a Catholic Saint so I assume he resides in a Catholic heaven. As a devout non believer, who does not believe in either heaven or hell, I  pen a brief note:

“Dear Auggie, to spend all eternity with you would be hell.”

What do you think?

 

SAGA June 28, 2014

Every story has a past.

How did I get from funny SCAM to serious CHILDREN? From drollery to drama in twenty-four  planetary revolutions?   It’s a sad leap.  It should have been a happy one. From David Letterman to Rush Limbaugh. From Madeline Kunin to Sarah Palin. From Isaac Asimov to James Dobson. From America  going sane to America going mad. From a world with a future to a world going extinct.

From relative economic stability to economic collapse. From ignorance of global change  to a chilling concern.  From a cold war to endless wars. From a world with hope of feeding hungry mouths to a world where, in some circles, hungry mouths are  a punishment from on high. From wealth, the acquisition of vast riches in few hands proving god was on your side. From a world with hopes and dreams to a dark world filled with-powered by, financed by, infiltrated with-voices welcoming  the end of times. Praying for it. Working for it. Nourishing it.

They feed on death. Not life.

Kauai, today,  is the eye of this fictions storm. A microcosm of what could be. Over populated. Riddled, burdened  with hunger, homeless, sickness, crime, drugs, corruption, military might–the Defense Department is  the largest employer in the state. On Kauai.  The world IS  in the throes of the Sixth Extinction. It is. That is a fact.

This was my foundation. I just moved it along. Sped it up. The future. Not so hot. The triple whammy, pandemic, hurricane, tsunami. Kauai, the only island in the  archipelago that stands a  chance of making it. A slim chance. Will it be the cradle of a new civilization? The beginning of a New Dark Age? Who are the players? What is the game? What about the children?

Now, before you’ve all run off and crawled under the bed, I gave those people hope. I gave these people a ruined island rich with sunshine, water, land. Hidden valleys. Loving hands. Precious children. Rich with talented,  hard-working people who have survived the apocalyptic crash  and have a plan. Are working on a plan. Working to make it work. Confronted with a group who want to see it fail. Who have other plans.  The dark side, if you will, of the struggle.  And it will be a struggle, Many confrontations. It moves from one encounter to another. For 387 pages I lead you through, beckon  you  to follow. You’ll love and hate  them. You’ll fear and fight them. You’ll be with’em or agin them.

Bob Woodruff said, “To change the future, first you have to imagine it.” Reilley, the narrator of this epic said, “They were the best of men at the worst of time.” You’ll travel with her through madness and despair.

She  runs the gamut of fear and hope, of struggle and sex and sadness, of youth and age, of laughter and adventure.  There is not a human condition she has not had need  to address. And you’ll meet a search and rescue dog who will steal your heart.