A Tree

It is understandable why you can't hear the song of a tree.

What is not understandable is why you can't hear the pain you create.

We can all lose our connections.

Connections to the world around us, our community, to our family and friends, to ourselves.

Regret.

Regret for our actions reminds us that we have harmed someone we care about.

We don't want to be the "bad" person.

The person who acts and doesn't care who they harm.

Especially our friends and family.

Where do we draw the line between those we include in our group and those we exclude?

On a playground, children make fun of how a classmate is dressed.

Maybe they came to school that day in their pajamas.

Adolescents believe that becoming an adult is about doing adult things.

If they believe that a person over there hasn't consumed alcohol, hasn't smoked, hasn't had sex, they become the judge, jury, and executioner, condemning that person as an outcast.

A loser.

Most adults don't move far from their own adolescent brains.

A parallel example is How well do you draw?

Most of us stopped drawing sometime as we entered high school.

If you picked up a pencil and were asked to draw a cow, you would render at the very same level as when you last attempted to draw.

However, drawing, like any other skill, has to be exercised to keep in shape.

If you practiced your art for a few weeks, you would improve.

We humans can adapt.

We are not relegated to staying in a self-imposed past.

We can grow.

Growth can only begin once you love yourself.

The foundation.

First, we all need to forgive ourselves.

We need to break the chain of our own making that constrains our true selves.

A universal chain to break is racism.

Most aspects of racism are learned.

The roots are passed down genetically like cancer; its darkness stops the growth of the individual.

Racism stops the growth of the community.

But this is nothing new.

Racists are not ignorant of which side of the line they stand on.

They like where they are at.

They know they don't like you.

Every aspect of their lives informs them, from their community to the God they worship, that they are doing the right thing.

So, how are you going to convince them otherwise?

Do you think telling them they need to grow will change their minds?

Do you think asking them to quiet their minds and listen to the song of trees will allow them to feel regret?

…

…

Ain't going to happen, folks.

Ain't going to happen that way, for sure.

It's like standing out before a mountain and trying to call it down with your voice.

Humans don't work that way.

You're not going to convince a racially motivated person to vote for you because you say change is right for them.

Give the other side a chance.

Ain't going to happen.

The people who support the President are not concerned with who they harm.

We are not part of their group, part of their America.

We aren't even human beings in their eyes.

They don't want to come together.

They don't want to move to the city.

They don't want to be told they are wrong.

They would rather burn down the forest than allow for the possibility that they could be wrong.

They can't hear us.

They really honestly can't hear us…

What do we do?

What can we do?

We grow…

We grow ourselves.

We grow and become bigger and stronger than hate.

We grow our community one day, one person at a time.

We grow our organizations, we reach for our brothers and sisters, and we encourage those who are reluctant to get involved.

We grow by standing together, holding to the truth, and the fair application of justice for all.

We grow a smile

A smile that's more powerful and does more good than any rhetoric could do.

We demonstrate through the actions of our lives and our community that we are happy.

We are a happy bunch.

We grow…

Happy to have a family of every race, color, and gender, young and old.

The seed that casts itself upon the hard ground will never grow.

Hardened hearts…

Hardened ears…

Will never know the joy of that first green burst of a new life.

Time wears away the mountain…

But nothing in this universe will break a racists belief.

Regret will whisper into the hardened ears as they witness the happiness they refused to join.

From the hard, lonely places of the world, new ears will grow.

They will ask…

What is that sound?

We will answer…

Love.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Masks

Most of us try to put our best face forward, but that face may not be our real selves.

I wear a mask.

It is a mask that I have put together to protect myself.

I suffer from too much empathy.

Too much empathy is a type of handicap in this world.

People's emotions can flood into me.

The first mask I use to deflect emotions that can flood over me is to hum to myself.

If the number of angry people around me increases, I'll sing a random song softly to myself.

At other times, I put on the mask of humor.

My best shield, my preferred boundary.

I have used that mask ever since I can remember.

It's my oldest and favorite.

That mask was developed to survive physical violence.

When you're raised in a home where violence, mainly random bi-polar violence, occurs, it turns out to be a good thing to keep your empathy at a frosty level of awareness.

Dad could switch on violent anger at the drop of a hat.

He could be laughing and joking at one moment, but one unpredictable remark or action from you could send him into an angry fit.

It could sometimes be defused with a well-placed piece of observational humor.

Sometimes, it could not, and the bloody beatings would follow.

I still do not do well around anger.

I don't run away.

I don't hide.

I've learned to face it.

Look into its empty eyes for a while.

The darkness of man…

However uneasy it makes me.

Just like a monster in a nightmare, I have found that if you stare into the face of anger, you will see its source.

Tonight, around the world, in our nation, in our homes, we are facing a nightmare.

The source material of this nightmare has been crafted from our own shared experience.

There are issues that we, as a people, have not addressed because we are fearful.

Fear is a force.

Fear, if not confronted, will grow into a monster called anger.

The beast called anger stalks the streets of the American consciousness.

Anger leads to hate…

The fear in the world and our nation is a genuine concern.

Many want to hide from the truth.

It is more fearful to look into the source of the anger than it is to project that anger at the innocent.

I'm sure my father had a problem that made him angry.

But like most humans, instead of addressing the problem head-on, it was easier to beat his kids to a bloody pulp.

They offered no resistance.

So you're saying most problems don't offer significant resistance?

No, the complete opposite.

That's why problems are a problem because they resist ordinary human effort.

Most problems require the extra mile, extra effort, and more willpower than the average person is willing to expend to resolve.

The biggest problem we have in this Republic is "Race."

A nation founded on freedom yet kept slaves.

That is, by definition, hypocrisy.

A Constitution that says all men are free, yet these over here are not.

The human duality of mind…

To be human, by definition, means you can keep two thoughts in your head that are in exact opposition to each other.

Military intelligence.

Crash landing.

Jumbo shrimp.

Free Lunch

Masks…

The war between the States never ended.

The battle to free men's hearts continues today.

Many wear the mask of civility, but in their hearts, they don't believe that all men are equal.

Behind these masks, a dark ocean of anger has swelled.

The finger of blame is pointed at the innocent.

Scapegoats.

When the real source is never examined.

Where does this anger come from?

How do you tell a person they believe in a false God?

How do you tell a person they swallow a false story about themselves?

How do you help a person understand that their problem is not outside of themselves?

It's inside.

It's them.

They are the creators of their doom.

Like an addict, they blame everyone but themselves for why they are at death's door.

The racist needs someone else to blame because to face the nightmare that they are to blame for their life is too much to bear.

Generation after generation scapegoat and blame their object of resentment, never once looking into their own hearts, minds, and actions, that they are the source of their unhappiness.

Masks…

Masks are only effective in the short term.

No mask will save you from the beating.

The only way to save yourself is with the truth.

Be kind to yourself.

You are deserving of love.

Open your heart and your eyes, and awaken from your nightmare.

See that you are surrounded by a golden light.

That darkness that you are afraid of?

You only had your eyes shut.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Grounded

Our President is a boil on humanity's neck, but he's not the only one.

As the world becomes smaller with information, both real and false can be had in an instant.

The veil that was the American dream has been lifted.

It is not a pretty picture.

Like the reveal of Dorian Gray's portrait, all of the hatred, the crime, the bigotry, and the injustice have left us with a gruesome portrayal of what America has been hiding from.

Through our own personal experience, all of us, no matter where we come from, try to put our best face forward.

Even though we may have a load in our pants, most of us, most of the time, want to be perceived as good people.

However, if we were perfect, why is there still fraud?

Racism?

Rape?

Child molestation?

Murder?

Somebody is committing these crimes against humanity.

The lifting of the veil that had previously covered the American way of life is only the most recent curtain-raising in history.

This underbelly of our society has been there since before the Pilgrims landed.

This is a significant point to understand.

We all like to believe in a good story.

There are many good stories at the heart of any society.

The core story that founded this nation in 1776 was that all men are born free.

He has always been free.

Anyone, including any organization that includes governments and religions, who tries to abridge that natural order, this inalienable right, is a tyrant.

They who oppose this Natural Freedom are tyrants.

Broadly defined, it is referred to as the tyranny of men.

These individuals and organizations are not friends of humanity; they oppose freedom.

Yet even though there have been those who hate others' freedom and will burn and kill to prevent those freedoms, these people are also a part of the fabric of humanity.

The threads of humanity are made of many fibers.

Most are common.

Some shine brilliantly.

While sadly, many are dull.

And some threads are just plain evil.

But all of them are part of the quilt of humanity.

Our nation was founded upon the idea of freedom, remember?

A bold proposition, given the history of the world.

Could people reconcile the social and ideological war that has been going on between those who believe in freedom and those who do not?

All of the previous institutions of the world, no matter the people or the region, did not wholly believe in the innate freedom of man.

The power of institutions of governments of religions is to control and to segregate.

Freedom is only granted at the price of membership and is reserved for those within the organization's power structure.

The American experiment aims to determine if enough people can overcome their past and their myths and embrace the concept of freedom for all.

Could all the threads come together and form a nation?

Could they drop their racism?

Could they drop their segregation?

Could they drop their story?

Could they drop their hate?

And pick up hope?

From the inception of that proposition of freedom for all, and including to this very hour, America and Americans have been at odds with their history and traditions.

And for those that have been at odds, those that feed and prosper from the old beliefs of segregation, division, hate, and racism, they have been looking for their personal savior to come and destroy their enemies and set them up as Kings of the Earth.

Their prayers were answered when Trump ascended to the Presidency.

Those racists knew a great day had arrived.

This President would usher in a new world.

This President and his followers believe they are the beginning of a new American brand of White Apartheid.

Make no mistake about it; the fear of a future Brown America by many Americans is genuine.

They see the demographic shift, and they are terrified.

Like dogs under the table being fed scraps of meat, people like the current President nurture the fear that white people are doomed as a race.

Don't start; nothing won't be nothing.

Right now, right today, we are at the bookend of the story started by European greed.

If the Aristocracy of Europe didn't want to lose their White identity, they should have stayed home.

It's ironic, and I understand very few actually get irony, but here goes…

It's ironic because the European Aristocracy believed that the White race was dominant.

Their arrogance allowed them to freely explore the world and claim it as their own, with little regard for the people they encountered along the way.

Those tens of millions of more people…

It turns out that, numbers-wise, the White population is a racial minority.

Fact.

It's also been perplexing to me how a minority group gained control of a majority, and that majority didn't conclusively tell this minority to sit down and stop rocking the boat.

But that's a digression.

Another discussion.

Back to the boil on our necks.

This President perpetuates a false narrative that many Americans believe, allowing him to shield himself from personal scrutiny as he accumulates financial wealth.

He's not a patriot.

He's not there for the majority.

He's there for a minority.

He's in office for the one.

Himself.

It's becoming increasingly obvious.

The only way to get rid of a boil is with a lance.

The actual substance of the argument must be pierced.

And in our case, the lance of truth must pierce the prejudice of tyranny.

The veil has been lifted, and our way is clear to see.

We must be grounded in the knowledge that freedom and justice are for all.

We're going to try to save as much of the quilt of America as we can.

But that lance can be used for more than lancing old boils.

It can be used as a needle to sew new bright threads of compassion, truth, and honor into the fabric of our nation.

Do not suffer fools.

Drop hate and pick up hope.

Shine the light of truth before freedom's door.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Baby Teeth

The world is growing up.

Living has a way of creating a set of expectations.

When you are a child, you think you will have your teeth forever.

Then, one day, one of them comes loose, and soon they are all falling out.

Your expectations did not match Reality.

Most of us believe the stories told to us by those in authority over us during our early years, such as our parents and caregivers.

These stories we naturally believe to be true.

Why would our parents lie to us?

An example is that someday, you will have a job.

Most of us get some level of education, and from there, we make choices and pursue a career.

Life sometimes throws us a curveball, and instead of a career with a 9-to-5 job, we end up with an hourly wage at a fast food joint.

When we were told we would grow up to have a career and dream about what that career would be, the difference between Reality and our dream can be strikingly different, can it not?

Right now, you and I are living in a time of change.

We are witnesses to what I'm calling a clash of expectations.

Each of us expected our lives and the world to work one way, only to be confronted with something very different.

That difference is Reality.

This clash of expectations today occurs because, for the first time in history, we can have both the truth and lies delivered into our hands and minds instantly.

Steve Jobs wanted to put the power of the computer into everyone's hands.

He saw it as a way of incorporating, blending, and merging the human race in a specific manner to achieve the harmony of humanity through knowledge.

He helped usher in the communication age.

People like Buckminster Fuller recognized that the desktop computer would be the most revolutionary force to unite all aspects of humanity on a critical path of knowledge.

For the very first time in human history, humanity would be able to know information instantly.

Unfiltered.

Joseph Campbell, on the other hand, saw a canyon opening up in humanity's future.

As Arthur C. Clarke put it, humanity was coming to its own childhood's end.

It was going to lose its baby teeth.

Campbell rightly witnessed the end of humanity's transitional traditions.

When I was a child, I thought like a child, and when I became an adult, I thought like an adult.

Childish things are to be put away when we become adults.

Campbell observed that the world over had lost those cultural traditions that previously told children, 'Now you are no longer a child, now you are an adult.'

Our modern society…

As an adult, you are responsible for the common good of the whole.

Children, conversely, are primarily concerned with their own happiness and welfare and are often selfish.

Previously, in the West, this time of transition from childhood to adulthood was called the age of responsibility.

When a person reached the age of eight or thereabouts, the child was recognized by the adults in the community as being able to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Being aware of that difference meant they could be held responsible for their actions, not only for themselves but for the community.

They realized Joe was old enough to trust that he could take the cows down to the river for a drink and not leave them there to go off and play.

Responsibility…

The individual left behind their childhood and took on the role of the adult to support and defend the common good.

Our modern society has allowed that tenet of humanity, what it means to be a human and an adult, to drift away, much like Wilson the soccer ball did in the film Castaway.

Today, we allow 40-year-old adults to behave in public as if they were toddlers.

Somehow, collectively, we are afraid to tell these adults to put away their toys, clean up their rooms, and behave like adults.

Be responsible for your community welfare.

There is obviously a whole host of issues that these childish expectations from these immature adults can come into conflict with Reality.

I deserve a trophy!

I will marry Prince Charming!

I will have the perfect career!

I'm always right; you're always wrong!

You can't make me!

I'm winning; you're not!

I'm better than you!

It's mine!

Children.

Children.

The Child/Adult can resist growing and being responsible for more than just their selfish interests well into their 80s.

However, one day, they will have to face Reality.

The truth.

We only get one chance at life, and sitting at the children's table, living as a petulant child tyrant, is a sad existence.

A sad existence for the child and the parents.

In America today, we find many people who we have previously elected to Office who demonstrate that they are still children.

These representatives of ours whine, they stomp their feet, they cry out, and these Senators are throwing a tantrum because they refuse to do the chore that they were sent to elected Office to do.

Their expectations of power and prestige as a member of a representational government have come into conflict with the Reality of which is more critical, their self-interests or the Constitution?

They resent having to serve the Constitution and not solely themselves.

The Constitution is written for We the People, not I, the indulged child/adult.

At the head of our government currently sits a particular kind of spoiled brat.

Indulged throughout his life, never told he was wrong by those who served his father; he believes himself to be his own law, his own justice, his own judge.

He has an expectation that his world cannot be challenged.

It's time that the adults in the room introduce this child President to Reality.

It's time to give him a timeout.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Self Interest

Why has the Republican Party jumped off a cliff?

What has happened to that political movement's reason?

How can a majority of Republicans embrace hate yet deny the history of hate and the disaster that the future will bring to their party?

Spite.

Spite is one of the answers.

Spite.

Bitterness.

Animosity. 

Hostility. 

Vengeance is all included in spite.

One day during the two terms of President Obama, the Republican Party majority woke up that day and realized that the world they believed would never change…

Did.

Somewhere between poor people getting health care and Trans people using the same toilet as them, their collective heads exploded.

The myth that they had consistently told themselves that being White and conservative in America would protect them from having to share the wealth with brown people evaporated in their minds.

They were painted into a corner…

This mental realization of the change, the broadening of the social good for all, drove a hot knife into their guts.

The reaction has been that the Republican Conservative Party would rather burn America down than allow one Black, one Brown, one they to share in "Their Homeland."

Among the many things that this executive branch has done while in Office to go where doomed political parties have gone before, boldly…

It was when their President and his people declared they were to defund the Special Olympics.

A moment of pure joy and a revelation to the nation…

The conservatives in this country exposed the dark heart at the root of the hate that is being fed.

The Republican Party and conservative America believe that it is in a fight to its death.

They will not listen to reason because they are embroiled in a struggle with what they believe to be true.

I've said it before, have you ever tried to take a bone away from a hungry dog?

These conservatives will bite your hand, they will claw your face, and they will rip your life apart to protect what they believe has been given to them by God.

Their rightful place as stewards of this country.

I personally know the depths of this feeling, being born into this conservative culture.

It is not only believed but preached from the pulpit every Sunday in America.

The story of White supremacy is taught to this very day, not just in alleys and in bars out by the highway.

White supremacy is in the Office, in the home, in the church.

The idea of segregation and Whites being the stewards of the earth is in the book of Genesis.

You don't believe it?

The racists believe it.

At least, that's how White racists interpret it. 

So, trying to reason with the Republican Party currently is a losing strategy.

When was the last time you asked a card-carrying Christian to stop believing in Jesus?

A story that says you'll have eternal life if you believe in me.

That is not something that can't be casually laid down, can it?

No.

Especially when, through the long, dark history of racism in this country, the two stories of racial superiority and Christianity have been woven together into an ugly basket of hate.

I honestly have no concrete answer to this problem of our current day.

I don't know how to stop the fear conservatives have that they are losing their world.

Because they are losing their world. 

The world is waking up.

The light of truth is shining into the dark places of our society, revealing an ugly, dark-hearted mold that is growing there.

Today, we are working to clean out that mold of the heart and mind.

Those who are happy to live in that darkness are upset that we are letting in the sunshine and spraying bleach around.

Like that show Hoarders…?

They are furious that we want to remove the trash from their house.

They love living in their filth.

They are comfortable with the status quo, and we are upsetting the apple cart.

In one respect, we are watching conservative America ride its anger off the cliff of history.

We who are looking towards the future are watching the past commit suicide.

We, the people, the majority, stand at the mountaintop and ask aloud, "Why did they do that?"

Love binds people to move toward truth and justice.

Love can bind the wounds of a people, too.

Love can sweep away the nightmares in the mind and restore hope.

Conservative America's last hope is that they can separate truth from lies.

Conservative America, if you can hear me, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Fear

Fear creates false stories.

If you are afraid, you are willing to believe the worst of the things you are scared of.

This phenomenon has been a part of human consciousness for a very long time.

Entire faiths and entire societies are based on fear.

Fear of death.

Fear of the stranger.

Fear of new ideas.

Fear of change.

Fear of you.

That's right.

Somebody, somewhere, right this very minute, is afraid of you. 

Of what you represent.

What do you represent?

Are you working for peace between your brother and your sister?

Or do you work against them because you don't trust them?

Or do you fall into the third thing, which captures the majority of us, which is that you do nothing?

Fear will render the most logical person to accept the illogical.

Since humanity first arose, fear of fear has created a false narrative.

A false story.

A false idea that there is a choice to be made.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

Upon the question of immigration, we are told you must have security first; then, possibly, consideration will be given to why undocumented immigration happens in the first place.

Why can't we do both?

We have adopted an ugly discourse of narrowly believing there is only one way to solve a problem.

We search for a magic silver bullet that we can fire off and finish off the beast.

We want to eliminate the thing that causes us to worry and work as quickly as possible.

We want a better world without doing any work.

I'll declare that to be a lazy, sluggish way of thinking.

It ignores our reality of life.

Let me put it this way…

When your parent cleaned your bottom, did they do it only once?

Did they say I'll find the best method of cleaning my child's bottom, and I'll be done with that!

They cleaned your bottom once and walked away.

They were self-satisfied that they had done the job in the best and most efficient way they knew how and never came back.

No.

Life is about messes and how we do our duty to attend to them.

Messes are renewed on a daily basis.

Your parent didn't have a fear of their duty to love their child.

Your parent saw it as a privilege to care for you.

It is our privilege to care for each other.

Each of us has an ability, no matter how large or small and humble, to reach out and care for each other. 

We can both walk and talk.

We can both care and have standards.

We can praise and critique.

Fear wants us to believe there is a binary choice between yes and no when, in reality, we all know that the world is gray.

Evil never wants a compromise.

A compromise would mean giving and giving, but that is not what evil is about.

Our duty to each other is never-ending.

Love doesn't stop at the border.

Love doesn't stop at the patient's bedside.

Love doesn't stop at the arrest of a suspect.

Love doesn't stop at the bench before the judge.

Love doesn't stop with the words in our Constitution.

Love asks more.

Love asks you to do all things with a glad heart.

You don't get to choose on the path of love how you can segregate your heart.

The realm of good ideas all has a seat at the table of humanity.

Love demands that we do all of them together.

We do not get to choose.

Love knows we can handle it.

Only fear tells us to choose one.

Life is not like Sophie's Choice.

We are not at the point of a gun to choose the life of one of our children over another.

We do not live in a world of a Paleolithic culture, having to decide which child we must sacrifice to the "gods" so that we can have a good crop next year.

We don't have to create gods to get past the fear of death.

Attention!

The world has moved beyond that cultural, mental restriction of child sacrifice.

Human sacrifice for a hollow safety.

Although some who feed fear want to feed that monster once again.

Blood doesn't have to be spilled for us to realize what the right thing to do is.

No.

We can keep both children.

We can keep all the children.

We can keep your children and mine. 

Hasn't the world gone through enough to realize that compassion has a huge hug?

Compassion's arms are endless.

We can do both…

It's not difficult.

It's called love.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Never Done

When we owned a home, the North side of the house had a problem with peeling paint.

Every summer, I had to get the ladder out, scrape the bubbling paint, and repaint it.

Each early spring, my father went out to trim the old growth on his fruit trees.

During the previous growing season, the tree would sprout sucker branches, which would leach out the tree's strength and divert that energy away from the growing fruit.

Sometimes, there is never enough time to complete what we need to do.

That's why there's a tomorrow.

Many tasks take more than one day to accomplish.

Completing a portion of the task each day with due diligence will help us reach our goal.

In the late 1800s, vitamins were discovered, albeit in a preliminary sense.

It was realized that some foods made people's health stronger than others, but the reason was unknown.

Grand claims were made by health food hucksters of the day that their mixtures could cure everything from ingrown toenails to women's complaints.

People then, as now, didn't go out of their comfort zones and habits.

It was known that inmates developed sickness and death from eating just cornbread and nothing else during imprisonment, but the authorities didn't know why.

It wasn't until 1912 that Casimir Funk isolated and confirmed the biochemical properties of what he termed vitamins, after which the public became aware of their benefits.

It turns out that the adage "a man can live on cornbread alone" is not valid.

You need a whole range of vitamins to live a healthy life.

Eating cornbread only and water will lead to a gruesome death.

However, knowledge of the right things to eat didn't flip a switch in people's diets.

Society abhors change.

People, on the whole, don't like to expend energy, do they?

For many, a crisis often serves as a catalyst for taking action.

The house has to be actually on fire before they think about taking the stacked newspapers out.

People have energy at the beginning, but for most, that enthusiasm dwindles with time.

They plant an herb garden and return a few months later to find that the weeds have taken over.

Our nation needs to tend to its democracy right now.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. admonished us all that the task of achieving equality and justice for all would not be accomplished in a day.

We each have our part to do.

The forces we fight will not give up.

Evil is not lazy.

Bigotry doesn't take the day off.

Racism feeds upon ignorance every day.

Injustice sprints ahead of the common good.

The weeds of intolerance grow in the fertile soil of anger and hopelessness.

Our challenge is not to succumb to apathy.

Nihilism.

If you've never picked an acre of beans, at the start, the task seems long, hot, and daunting.

The sun beats you down and stings your eyes.

The fly bites your ankles, and the blood flows.

You take a break, but the nagging feeling persists, urging you to get up and get it done.

While you're working, a friend stops by and lends a hand.

The neighbor next door sees you working and brings you a drink of cold water.

That neighbor joins in, and then the guy across the way brings a sandwich and helps with the picking, too.

A community has come together of brothers and sisters, young and old, rich and poor, all joining hands and hearts to share in the work.

To share in the riches.

To share in the love. To share the burden of the task.

A human thing.

We will get there together, all of us, one day.

Love has always been stronger than hate.

Always and in all ways.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Hear That?

In the night, where the streetlights buzz.

The smell of cooking still lingers.

A sharp word yelled through broken walls.

A slap.

A body hits the wall.

Silence.

Hear that?

Saturday night, the lights of the city are a blur.

Running from a ghost of a memory.

Fear propels relief into the vein.

Fear turns eyes away from truth.

Funny how the world doesn't fit into the story told.

A hollow cry for help.

Hear that?

There are sounds we want to hear.

The comfort of a familiar song.

The beat of rain up on the roof.

The thrill of children who are about to eat.

The words that tell us that we are wanted.

The abiding of love.

Hear that?

You and I can hear it.

How is it that so many can't?

What has happened to make pain invisible?

What story is more important to protect, which allows suffering?

Why are peace and prosperity only for a privileged few?

How can so many hope for so little for so many?

Hear that?

It's a sound that this President has never heard.

It's a beat that puts fear in the corrupt.

It's a solo voiced by knights of this republic that makes Evil run.

It's a chorus sung by the old, the young, the weak, the poor, the sick, the forgotten, the majority, by we the people.

It's the sound of justice coming right quick.

Hear that?

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby