The Dark Waters Roll

This a moral check-up…

How are you doing?

We all find ourselves being asked what our response to injustice is.

Not too long ago on the arc of moral awakening…

We didn't know what we were doing…

When we were pushing for an answer, we didn't want.

Because to ask the question meant to answer a long-standing cancer on the American soul.

First, we elected an immoral President.

He broke the dam, and all the dark waters that our nation has hidden from consciousness have flooded back into everyone's lives.

Reminding us of the dirt on our souls cannot be hidden forever.

This first monster of our own creation was unleashed.

Brown children in cages to destroy the American dream of freedom.

Our legislature House and Senate turn their backs on executive corruption so that they can pack the courts to end women's right to privacy.

Promises of a return to an all-white America where jobs are aplenty, the money piled high, and all that equality BS buried…

Dead.

The conservative, less government, fiscally responsible, Constitutional purist Republican Party led over a cliff by a sociopathic, day trading, pied piper.

Our intelligence services mocked and admonitions of collusion with America's enemies ignored.

Everyone can be bought.

Our President betrays his oath to the Constitution and is impeached.

Yet our courage to stand for justice ran away and hid behind indifference to truth for political gain. 

This President was not removed.

The dark waters roll…

A plague is unleashed.

One person's nightmare is another person's lunch.

The virus, like the American President, doesn't know what empathy is.

The virus rolls across the world, piling bodies with a casual efficiency.

As it makes its way across America, us became them.

Prejudice feeds upon lies that support its belief.

The virus is only a problem for the old, the brown, the black, not white male America.

Magical thinking believes that a death toll of 100,000 is the limit and can't, it wouldn't go higher.

Can it?

The bodies pile up.

The dark waters roll…

George Floyd is killed by four Minneapolis Police officers in full view, fully recorded.

The third leg of this American sickness steps down onto our necks.

We are told we didn't see what we saw.

The third monster is unleashed.

The original sin.

The hole in the head, the heart, of the Great American Experiment.

Racism.

Mr. Floyd had no idea that day when he woke up that he was going to light a nation's sense of justice a fire.

Like so many hero's, he was at the wrong place at the right time.

His life was stolen from him.

Those that murdered him did not understand what they were doing.

They lit the watch-fires of our democracy.

From hill to hill.

From the valley to the plain.

From mountain top to ocean, the call went out that our democracy is in danger.

No person's life is in vain.

George Floyd made a difference in the world.

I wonder what he's thinking about as the world stands up in his name calling for justice?

The dark waters roll…

The flood has not abated.

We are afloat you and I in this uncertain place and time.

I want to give you hope.

For the first time, it looks like there is enough of us to row this lifeboat to that blessed shore.

The world hears our cry, "I can't breathe."

We can row this boat ashore.

Our captain is justice.

This dark tide will yell and scream, but it can't stop the journey of the light.

We can all bring justice once and for all.

For all.

We will answer that question posed over 200 years ago.

For once in its entire history, will the many become one?

Listen…

Look...

The waters part and in the middle walk a free people under the light of justice.

Peace

DFrey

Us Became Them

Not so long ago, COVID-19 was seen as a crisis facing the world.

Today in America, it is not a problem.

We marched over the dead to hundred-thousand and will continue to ignore the hundreds of thousands that will come in the weeks and months ahead.

The virus is only a problem for the marginalized, the ignored, the takers.

Them.

Why is that?

America sees everything through Race.

The cancer of slavery on this nation burned out the eyes, ears, hearts, and minds of white America.

Left and right.

Rich and poor.

Like an open infected wound, it has burned through the long night since 1864.

The smell of racism lingers in the air like fresh-popped corn.

America cannot do anything without first asking will it benefit the minorities.

Minorities in white America is only Black Americans.

All others need not apply.

The racial animus, the hatred, the focus of who caused economic poverty in white racist America is on blacks.

This virus has become a convenient scapegoat for our racist leadership at the local and federal governments and law enforcement.

An easy excuse to do nothing to help and protect.

When COVID was a plague that could be caught by anyone, it was something to take action upon.

But, as soon as the media reported that Black America was incredibly hard hit with the loss of life, racist America realized they had a blue light special.

COVID provided a way to decrease those on welfare.

COVID provided a way to eliminate those pension checks.

COVID provided a solution to decrease those sucking federal dollars through Social Security.

The bonus was it was hitting black and brown communities the hardest.

Or so white racist America believe…

Prejudice feeds upon stories that support it.

You, as an individual, may like donuts.

If you hear of a study that says donuts are good for you, even if it’s not true, you’ll smile and be confirmed in your prejudice.

Humanity has told stories to each other, especially when drunk, that support their world view.

Humanity tends to dismiss those stories that do not fit into the world order that they believe is true.

The virus has a story it will tell.

COVID 19 is not the flu, it is not a cold.

It is a virus that will burn its way through the population of the earth until everyone has been infected.

In three months, only 5% of the American population has been exposed to the virus.

In three months, we went from zero dead to over 101,000.

If the past is prologue, then by the time the remaining 95% of America is infected, 1.5 million lives will have been lost.

That is the foreword of the COVID 19 story.

What of the story of those who lived during this time of COVID?

There will be black faces, brown faces, white faces, Asian faces.

All those faces that no longer can tell their story.

Their hopes.

Their dreams.

The reason why they were born cut short because of the careless nature of humanity.

This carelessness of the value of just one human life.

Humanity has never been able to learn on its own.

Humanity has always had to fall and hit bottom before it can turn and lift itself up.

The story of America is a racial one.

Can a people of many nations, many creeds, many races live together?

Trust one another?

Care for one another?

This virus will remind us that love asks more of us each and every day.

We are all brothers and sisters in a good fight today.

We may lose a battle, but justice is on our side, we will not lose the war.

Peace

DFrey

A Time Not Seen

The day you were born.

Your first steps.

The moment when you saw the sky.

A time not seen.

The war of Independence.

The war between the states.

The war for human rights.

A time not seen.

Before smartphones.

Before telephone poles.

Before telegraph wire.

A time not seen.

The edge of the universe.

The edge of our solar system.

The edge of despair in the human heart.

A time not seen.

Like a toddler new to the world, America is about to take a step of fate.

It would appear reason and ignorance are evenly balanced.

The cliff is the virus.

Science and its companion medicine shout out warnings to step back.

This country has seen death before.

But not at the hands of so merciless a God as this virus.

It laughs at a few hundred thousand.

The grim skull of the virus will not be full until it takes millions of lives from coast to coast.

Too many want to step off the cliff to see what happens.

If only those who want to tempt fate were the ones to lose their lives.

You cannot stop a fool from shooting their own foot off.

However, the determination of those who want to ignore reality are committing a kind of social suicide.

They don’t want to go alone.

Their hatred of government, of laws, restrictions, of minorities, and women spur them over the cliff like lemmings.

The jaws of the virus feed at the bucket of the prejudiced.

What makes America the worse at handling this global crisis?

Racism.

Both ethnic and economic.

A time is rapidly approaching that has not been seen.

Unless and until there is an effective vaccine, the virus will mount bodies to the sky.

This country has not seen a million people perish in one crisis.

Other nations have.

Other nations came out on the other side.

Different.

Matured.

They came to understand the value of one human life.

We, as a nation, have not learned that lesson.

This nation is falling and does not recognize its descent.

Let us change the trajectory.

Let us challenge the fear.

Let us make this a time not seen.

A time where compassion is our guide.

A time where hope is the arm that comforts us.

A time where love asks each of us to do more each and every day.

Let us, please, see that too many have died.

Do something now.

Peace

DFrey

The Takers

You and I are considered the takers by conservative America.

If you are on welfare.

If you are on food stamps.

If you get a social security check.

If you are on Medicare.

If you are on Medicaid.

If you are on Obama Care.

If you are a working woman who took a job from a white man.

If you are a minority, who took a job from a white man.

If your housing is subsidized by the state or feds.

If you are a minority and got a loan to start a business.

If you are a racial minority, or a woman, or gay and ask for justice.

If you complain.

If you’re not satisfied and want a better life.

If you believe everyone should pay their fair share of taxes.

If you vote for a democrat.

If you believe in equal rights.

If you get a pension.

If you are living in an extended care facility.

If you are a migrant.

If you are black.

If you are brown.

If you are an Asian.

If you need childcare.

If you need an abortion.

If you want equal pay for equal work.

If you believe there is a need for a federal government.

If you believe in freedom of speech.

If you believe in a free press.

If you want the freedom to be safe.

If you demand police accountability.

If you believe in sharing.

You are a taker.

Isn’t that strange?

Humans come in two varieties.

Those that share and those who can’t.

Conservatives conserve, they don’t believe in sharing.

Those that do believe in sharing are painted with the derogatory slang as takers.

Consider a lesson taught by all good teachers both in society and in the home for generation after generation.

Share and share-alike.

We share to lessen the burden of the heart, mind, and spirit.

Those that don’t want to share have isolated themselves from the world as well as their own existence.

It is fear that keeps too many of us from reaching out and saying I’m in trouble.

I need help.

If we want that better world, we need to reach out and lift up our conservative brothers and sisters.

Let them see a beautiful community come together.

A place where we practice the common good.

A place where we practice freedom from fear.

A place where we practice giving.

Give so that those that live under the burden of fear may take of happiness.

Peace

DFrey

Angels

I have seen them on the earth.

As an orderly for five years.

As the son of an RN Elaine Frey.

As my wife, Denny cares for her patients in the ICU.

I have seen angels on the earth.

I have seen nurses wipe the bloody wounds clean.

Watched as they laughed about a daytime TV show.

Heard them cry after the patient's family has left the bedside of their loved one who had passed.

I watched as they prepared a meal after a long day at work.

Listened to them tell a doctor to pay attention to their patient who is in need.

I felt the care when I was sick, told to take my medicine, and force fluids.

Brotherhood, as they helped me prepare the body of those that have passed to take to the morgue.

A team, while the nurses hung IV meds, wrote quick nurses notes, bagged the patient, as I did the CPR.

Sitting down after a long night to have a donut, but they're all gone.

Saw them wheel a female patient in a wheelchair up to OBGYN; it's their first baby.

Was there as they filled out the chart.

Was there as they took the call from the attending physician.

Helped hold the patient as they cleaned and washed the patients who had soiled themselves.

Was there when it was their first day on the job.

There when they retired.

The hands of a nurse are a contradiction.

They are strong able to turn 300-pound patients.

They are rough, cracked from years of constant washing.

They are also filled with an unbounded understanding of the true meaning of love.

Love never asks for less.

Love asks all of us to do more than expected.

The crisis of a generation is upon us all.

We are all grateful that we are not alone in this world to face it.

There are angels there to catch us should we stumble.

Angels who bring the light of hope.

Thank you.

Peace

DFrey

Value

We stand for the value of one human life.

The movie is Judgement at Nuremberg.

Told is the true story of how German people led by their government committed selfish murder against the whole world.

Specifically, the Holocaust.

The purposeful elimination of a people, a culture for the purpose of the economic blame game.

For the purpose of the idea of racial purity.

For the purpose of hate.

Racism = Genocide.

Those voices of the Nazis, fascism, ethnic nationalism has not disappeared from the earth.

During this pandemic sweeping the world, those voices can be heard in the cheering section.

Let them die; they are on their last legs.

2 to 3% is an acceptable loss.

The cure can’t be worse than the disease.

We got to save the economy, so grandpa and grandma should be happy to give up their lives.

We stand for the value of one human life.

There continues to be a blind malignancy in the human soul.

A cancer we do not want to address.

Hate.

Hate is the virus that eats out the heart from within.

Hate drives the individual, even the nation, over the cliff of reason.

Hate leaves behind the shores of compassion in favor of the chaos of anger, of discrimination.

Yet hate is part of the human soul.

Hate and love are two sides of our existence.

Hate is not foreign, it is not grown by aliens from distant planets in our minds.

We conjure the monster ourselves.

We are responsible for hate.

Hate is our child just as much as love is.

With the realization that we grow the weeds of hate, don’t you think we can do something about that?

This virus has shown a bright light into the cracks of our society.

What some may have believed was whole and good in the light of this crisis has been shown to have great riffs in it.

The poor are dying in higher numbers.

The old are dying in higher numbers.

Black and brown people are dying higher numbers.

We pretend that there was a safety net, but when that net was called upon, it wasn’t there.

Who is to blame?

Everyone.

What can we do about it?

Everyone, every day, even right now, can decide to do the right thing.

The funny thing about the light, it can show you where you want to go.

We will want universal health care no matter if you are employed or not.

We will want a universal, guaranteed income.

We will want universal paid sick leave.

Simply put, we will want our government of and by the people to universally want to care and protect us.

Who is my brother, who is my sister?

We stand for the value of one human life.

Peace.

DFrey

Time

How has our expectations of what, where, and who we are has been changed?

It has been a little over a month since the stay in place order was issued by Governor Newsom.

The "what" is the virus.

The shark in the water.

The game of Russian Roulette.

The random finger of fate that reminds both the high and the low of their mortality.

The "where" is the place we thought we would be.

The plans.

Spring.

Planning our summer vacations.

The gatherings after work and on the weekends with family and friends.

Holidays.

Now, all put on hold.

Put on a shelf for another time a future place.

Who has been changed?

The nurse working a double shift and can't go home because she might carry the virus.

The waitress at the diner who no longer has a job.

The Doctor reusing their PPE.

The guy who works in construction because all work has been put on hold.

The Captain of an aircraft carrier who stood for his crew yet lost his career.

All of us have to one degree or another been changed by this event.

This crisis.

This space.

This time.

Change comes but not in the way we expect it too.

Or want it to…

When change comes, we have two choices.

To grind our teeth, to become angry, to resent the messenger, to deny reality.

Or…

To open our hearts, open our minds, begin the good work, become hope.

The first way leads to a dead-end making the world worse.

The second way leads to making the world better.

Time has allowed us to do something that hasn't been tried before.

This crisis has exposed the rot in our world.

Like a bright light into a dark corner, what we thought was healthy turns out to be sick.

We need a better health care system that serves all.

We need a better-elected government to serve all of the people.

We need a better faith that doesn't put money over the lives and welfare of its followers.

We need to look out better, not just for ourselves but for our community.

We need to care.

Our nation requires care.

Its people need care.

It's time for all of us to care for one another.

Stay home, save lives.

It's time we do the right thing this time the first time.

You are the hope the world is waiting for.

Peace.

DFrey

The Elephant in the Room

People are dying because conservatives do not believe in the federal government.

People are dying because they believe in the conservative idea of the individual.

People are dying because of their conservative faith.

The Republican Party has died, and like a dead elephant in a river, the sickness is spreading downstream, devouring anyone who drinks from that water.

The argument is as old as the country states rights versus federal.

From Nixon to Mitch McConnell, from Paul Harvey to Rush Limbaugh, the hatred and doctrine of killing off the federal government have been preached through the decades.

This conservative movement within the Republican Party has had it with our Republic.

They have preached Nationalism, white Nationalism, where white men rule, and all others need not apply.

They no longer will tolerate women as being equal, or blacks, or browns, or Asians, or gays, or anyone not a white Anglo-Saxon male.

To that end, people like Newt Gingrich got the idea that they could slowly starve to death, the federal government.

They could slowly weaken it to the point where they could throw the government into a bathtub and drown it.

Their words.

They could restore the proper order of the world.

Their white male God and then his agents here on earth, the white male businessman.

They have preached the ideal of the independent man.

The rugged individual.

A person who does not need any assistance from their government or others.

This whole conservative mindset of killing off of the federal government is based upon the real personality disorder that these individuals all share.

It’s sociopathic.

It’s only about me and my needs and to hell with you or me.

This sociopathic mindset is found in conservative circles, on Wall Street, in corporations, in traditional religious faiths.

Either our way or the highway.

Kill them all and let God sort them out.

Their words.

As of today, it is apparent that 2020 has been canceled.

There is a tiger in our streets.

It has been made manifestly worse by this stand it alone, profit is king, screw the weak doctrine.

Blatant profiteering taking place by friends of this President.

Yet, the universe has a sense of dark irony that the mind which focuses only on themselves cannot, will not see.

Those that work together will survive.

Those that cooperate will thrive.

Those that share will prosper.

Those who partake in the beloved community will see the future.

Those who believe themselves immune to death because of their individualism, their isolation from community, their hatred of the federal government will find that Tiger will not overlook them.

Mortality is the great equalizer.

There is nothing sadder than a life lived alone.

We come together to share life and to have more of it.

Peace.

DFrey