Fundamental

The times they are changing.

The people on top have gone through many name changes in history.

A moving target is hard to hit.

For a very long time, they were called Bandits.

Then Master.

Then King.

Then Aristocracy.

Then the Man.

Then the Ownership Class.

They have had a few things in common over the past 10,000 years.

The ownership class does not like to share.

The ownership class does not like public education.

The ownership class does not like the Public period.

The times they are changing.

In the past history 400 years ago, the fear that struck at the heart of the Aristocracy was Moveable type.

Moveable type meant that anything which was said on any given day, on that same day, it could be printed and read by thousands.

The King's in the past were not afraid of the public learning of their thievery in time for the public to do anything about it.

The Master's controlled the narrative about themselves masterfully.

The public couldn't understand the motivations of the wealthy because we were poor.

Not just poor in the pocketbook, but also poorly educated, poorly understood politics, poorly endowed with brains that were equal to the rich.

Moveable type allowed for the almost live rendition of fact to the general public.

It took many social and political revolutions, the American revolution being one of them before the Aristocracy got control of the narrative again.

You can point to the American Civil war as being one of the turning points in history where a War of the Aristocracy was committed to further the power and control of industry.

The First World War was a war between the Aristocracy of Europe.

Each and every war since then has been about control of corporate power over resources and who ultimately sat on industry boards in control of the planets natural wealth.

The Man in control of the "Business" gave money to politicians who wrote the laws, who then made the world favorable once again to the Aristocrat.

Dissent was easily destroyed through media, narratives casting doubt upon public institutions were firmly once again ingrained in the public perception.

Can't trust the government…

Freedom had the drapes pulled, and the public didn't see it coming.

The ownership class is good at its own public relations you have to give them that.

However, an immigrant to America had an idea from watching Star Trek.

Steve Jobs wanted to own and operate a company that built and supplied the computer that was in control of the starship Enterprise.

Today over 2.1 billion smartphones and growing are in the hands of the public.

This is causing yet again a fundamental shift of power to which the Aristocrat is once again in jeopardy.

The Ownership class is throwing the kitchen sink at the truth, trying to stop the information age.

At least those aware enough to see that their yacht is on fire.

The Masters are losing control of the narrative.

Each and every day, countless millions can see and hear how their neighbor fell off their skateboard and broke their tailbone.

They can see and hear what their government representative has said about cooperating with an enemy of their country.

They can see and hear the owner of an airplane company say, "…oops we made a mistake people died, our bad."

They can see and hear how current day Aristocrats tell women what they can and can't have in their bodies.

The narrative is no longer in control of the invisible corrupt.

We are witness to a transition in history, just like the time of the invention of the Moveable type.

Our world is changing.

It will change fundamentally.

The genie is out of the bottle.

No amount of alternative narrative can prevent the truth from being revealed.

The sight of a man running away shot in the back by police.

A Sex Trafficker is sitting with your senator, your president's family.

A teacher is choking a student.

A teen is shooting a store clerk in the face.

Men in the street are carrying tiki torches chanting slogans of Nazis.

The sight of a melted north pole.

This power that has been given to us in the palm of our hands is an instrument for a fundamental change of our world, of our society.

For the first time in human history, those that feed and profit from fear can no longer hide.

What happens next?

The times they are changing…

Peace

DFrey

Character

How has your winter been this year?

We are all in the middle of this time of the season.

Snow, rain, cold, dark skies.

Makes you want to stay inside and to find that thing that comforts you.

Hot chocolate does it for some.

For others, mac & cheese, maybe a crackling fire, a favorite book to read, some heartwarming music.

We all know that this season will pass and we know ahead of us lies the Spring.

We will change our garments to shake off the warm clothes and welcome the return of the sun.

Life comes in cycles which have been recognized by all peoples the world over.

What if a group of people didn't want the Spring to come?

What if this group of people wanted it to be winter all year long?

What would you ask these people why they want it to be winter all the time?

What would you do?

Character.

Character is a lost word in our 21st-century society.

For many, it is defined by the celebrity.

Character is recognized as the person who stands out from the crowd.

Character defined as the remarkable individual.

That's one definition, but it is not the origin of what the word Character means.

To have Character the individual lives by a set of moral principles recognized and defined by the society at large.

A real way to know if a person has Character is when adversity strikes.

You lose your job, what do you do?

Do you immediately take drugs and alcohol and soon die from an opioid overdose?

That person has no character.

Your wife dies you leaving you penniless.

Do you rob a bank to get back the money you believe you are owed?

That person has no character.

A woman is going through a lousy divorce do you hit on her for sex?

That person has no character.

A person with Character will not sit idly by when presented by adversity.

A person with Character will not turn their backs when injustice strikes.

A person with Character can be anyone big or small, young or old, wealthy or poor.

It is not just one definition of Character that can respond to injustice.

We celebrate the differences.

Each and everyone has a responsibility, a privilege to stand against injustice.

There are those without Character who seek to profit from adversity.

They sow seeds of fear, of anger, of myth.

Their gratification is in creating as much turmoil as they can.

They enjoy spreading the darkness, the cold of an eternal winter of the soul.

Hold up in a cave of white stone they blow ill winds of deceit.

However, you want to know something.

They're just some old silly bear afraid of the change of season.

Their eyes strain at the brightness at the newness of the world to come.

No matter how much they may growl and howl and grit their teeth, they can't stop the Spring from coming.

They can't stop justice and equality for all.

Why?

Why because the universe itself bends towards justice.

No old bear in the White House can stop or will ever stop the rollout of justice.

Character.

– I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their Character.

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace

DFrey

Without Our Permission

Change happens without our permission.

That's a fact of this Universe.

The Universe does not wait for our approval.

You can have an opinion about it, but it doesn't change the facts.

Can you stop the tide from rolling in?

Can you stop your child from growing?

Can you stop the sun from setting?

No, you can't.

I can't either.

Nobody can.

Change is the fundamental nature of life.

We are born, we live a life, and then we die.

Each step along that path, we find the world changes around us as we change.

Some of the changes are welcome.

The look of your child as they master riding a bike.

Watching your daughter's face as she marries the person she loves.

That new job you've worked so long and hard for.

Suddenly is gone.

Gone.

Some changes are not welcome.

Your dog is ill and needs to be put down.

There's no work in your town anymore.

The McRib will no longer be sold.

The biggest unwanted change…

The death of a loved one.

Today, March 24th, 2018 in the streets of America and around the world, a collective shout demanding change was issued.

A choice, a demand that life be preserved versus the right to kill.

Why do we reserve the right to kill in this nation?

Could it be the lagging cancer on our soul of racism?

Fear of the other?

Fear of the stranger?

A new voice was raised today to join the old chorus of the past.

It's beat, it's melody unfamiliar to the ears of an older generation, yet, at its heart, it's driving beat as familiar as that old gospel sung by other marchers for freedom from tyranny.

Change comes without our permission.

You can be part of the solution, or you can step aside.

A better world, free of the fear of gun violence has always been in our hands to make real.

The eyes of a nation have been lifted up by the spirit of their children.

March for our lives.

Peace

DFrey

Lift Them Up

Walking into my favorite coffee spot the other day, the hostess Josseline looked tired. 

"How are you today, Josseline," I asked?

She smiled, "No one ever asks how I'm doing. Thank you."

Lift them up.

Some girls were out in front of the grocery store the other day selling Girl Scout cookies. 

They had their learned lines down asking each person as they went by to please purchase their cookies. 

Many did.

An old woman walked by. 

They asked her if she would buy some of their delicious cookies. 

She said she liked to, but she didn't have extra money. 

One of the girls handed her a box for free.

Lift them up.

This coming Saturday, March 24th, from 10 AM to 2 PM starting at Pershing Square, 582 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA,

March For Our Lives is holding a rally and a march.

Everyone is welcome, not just students and teachers affected by the rule of the gun in our land.

Wait!

Listen...?

Did you hear that…?

Do you hear it?

People, a nation, a time when voices filled with fear call out collectively for justice.

A sound heard through the long halls history foretells of a building wave. 

A wave built upon the broken and shattered lives cut short by the tyranny of a few men over the many.

Lift them up.

Why can't some people hear other people crying?

Why can't some people see the suffering people not like them

Why do some people turn their backs when they can help stop injustice?

Fear of change clouds the eye.

Fear of change darkens the heart.

Fear of change binds the hands.

Fear of the stranger resists compassion.

Lift them up.

You can read the writing on the wall.

You can see the summer change to fall and then to winter. 

You can see the tide roll in and out. 

You can witness the sunrise in the East and set in the West.

But can you see the despair in others, not like yourself?

Can you feel what it is like to live in fear of death?

Can we as a people ask everyone to be responsible? 

Everyone.

Is that too much to ask for? 

Is that a bridge too far? 

A shore too distant? 

Are we collectively going to fall into a trap set by profiteers of death?

The profiteers who stoke the fears of the unknown. 

Who whisper horrible intent of races not your own. 

Who raised up Jesus yet tell us that even the man of peace would have a conceal-carry under his robe.

That if everyone carried a gun, we would all be safe?

I tell you that's a lie.

It is a lie made by dark-hearted men to make a profit out of the fearful.

To tell you the truth…

I can tell you there will never be a time in your whole life that you will you ever be safe.

Never.

That is the reality.

The story that many believe is if you live a good life, worship the right god, live in the right neighborhood, drive the right car, marry the right person, go to the right school, get the good job, mind your own business, mow your lawn, keep your house painted, donate to charity, care for your family, that somehow through all these things you will be kept safe by an invisible spirit.

You will not be given anything you cannot bear…

That's a story.

It is not reality.

There are some storms we cannot bear…

Bad things happen to everyone. 

You can't stop it.

But you can with compassion do the thing that we all can recognize is the right thing to do.

You can reach out and take a hand that reaches for help.

You can reach out and hold that person who is afraid.

You can lift them up.

Stand with us on March 24th everywhere in our nation.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Most of all, for life.

Peace

DFrey

Charlottesville, Virginia

illustration by Daniel J. Frey

Peace

DFrey

Again Begin

Did you know I'm an artist?

I drew before I could write and I still draw down onto paper my observations, visions…

I draw upon my life and experience.

Being an asthmatic child and adult.

Of dying when I was seventeen.

I forgot my family and had to be reintroduced to them and the world.

Of being an orderly tending the sick, applying CPR on over 114 people, of caring for the dead.

Finding love, of losing it and finding it again, of the gift of a beautiful son and daughter…

To that end and a new beginning, I have begun a monthly extended graphic novel around the central drive of my life to help make the world better.

To point to an open door where our better angels wait for us all.

Again Begin is a journey to the central problem in the world the human race.

It has been a story I've worked on for the past 40 years.

Personal disasters, failures aside, I have turned over this story many times as I lay myself to sleep each night.

In light of the times, in the light of dim direction, plainly no light at all going on in some heads we give the title leader, I will bring to revelation this tale of science fiction wrapped around an ancient parable to stir our genetic memory.

A new myth…

Thank you, Joseph Campbell.

Below is a page exclusive to this website from issue number one of Again Begin available through all the outlets of ebooks as well as a printed version at Amazon.com

Peace

DFrey

Man In Black

I’ve been asked why I always wear black. Here’s the answer…

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,

Why you never see bright colors on my back,

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.

Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,

Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,

But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,

Or listened to the words that Jesus said,

About the road to happiness through love and charity,

Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,

In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,

But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,

Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,

For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,

I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,

Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,

Believen' that the Lord was on their side,

I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,

Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,

And things need changin' everywhere you go,

But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,

You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,

And tell the world that everything's OK,

But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

–      Johnny Cash

Can’t say it any better.

DFrey

Peace