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

Cannibals

Straight up.

The wealthy cannibalize society by hoarding wealth and stealing its dignity.

Throughout recorded history, this has been a fact.

It has never stopped.

It's a fact.

It has never stopped.

Why should it?

The wealthy are a crafty type of parasite, for the most part.

They feed off their host to the point of weakening it.

But the rule for the wealthy is not to bleed the host so much that they die.

In recent centuries, the French Revolution is a good point, in fact, demonstrating how the wealthy lost control of their greed.

Centuries of no justice, enslavement, and destruction of the common good to enhance the coffers of the wealthy made a lot of ordinary people in France really upset.

They were so upset that they believed chopping the heads off the wealthy would lead them to a better society.

It alleviated the immediate problem of the local wealthy ignoring the needs of the host they were feeding on, but it wasn't a cure.

Killing is never a cure.

Government-sponsored killing, primarily of the non-wealthy, is a part of the cycle of justice put into place by the wealthy so that the larger society never addresses the source of the problems we all face.

People who cannot and will not share.

Some of us may recall the words of the golden rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Or, as the wealthy use that same sentiment but with a twist, do unto others before they do unto you.

Wealth does a terrible thing to people. 

It enhances their character flaws.

If a person were a small ass, they would become an enormous ass with a wealth injection.

Sharing is not a trait that we are born with.

It is a fact.

If you are not aware of this, please look into the current human genome project to understand how we are all born with a selfish nature. 

Are Babies Born Good? by Abigail Tucker, Smithsonian Magazine, 2013.

Sharing has to be taught by "caring" people.

Some of us get the lesson while others are naturally predisposed to be resistant to sharing.

Others still may have had bad parents who never took the time to instruct or demonstrate sharing with others outside their immediate family.

Sharing means giving up some of your resources to help another.

On a hostile planet with a rapidly changing environment, resources to keep you alive are critical.

It's obvious why an inborn trait of not sharing would be a universal fact in all of humanity everywhere.

Hoarding resources allows the individual to survive and pass on their genes.

However, this biological method of survival is antimatter to a society.

Society is all about cohesion, right?

Sticking together?

The rugged individual who is the self-made man, always winning, the top dog, the alpha male, or the wealthy, is the complete opposite of what a community stands for.

Right?

The wealthy tell the poor we are better than you because we won't share.

So, in point of fact, the wealthy are the best at being humans who survive to pass on their genes and their inhumanity.

They survive at the expense of the lives that they destroy.

Is there a cure?

Is there a way to prevent this cannibalism?

There has been a cure right in front of our faces.

Love.

Love is the answer.

Love derives from our better angels.

We all have the instinct not to share.

But right there from the very beginning of our lives, a whisper tapped us all on our hearts.

You may or may not have recognized it. 

The wealthy shout in our faces to follow their example, to deny each other and ourselves, to serve them.

Some listen to those callous voices, thinking they will be like them one day.

Yet in the quiet spaces of all of our lives, the voice of love asks us to do more.

Love asks not to do one act of love but to do many acts of love at the same time.

Love knows we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Love knows we can share bread with the lost.

We can heal those who cannot repay us.

We can protect those who cannot defend themselves.

We can lift the hopeless and hold them in our arms till they feel safe.

We can wipe away the tears.

We can do all that any one of us can in just one day and do it again the next.

Love is stronger and more profound than the instinct of the wealthy not to share.

Love is a code that has existed in this universe long before the Earth was formed.

Love is a code, as elaborate or as simple as those who want to hide from it versus those who want to walk with it.

Love is wealth that can never be taken away.

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

Keeping It Real

Keeping it real is a phrase that means staying true to yourself.

For the past month, we have seen leaders in our government display their true selves.

We saw a Speaker of the House stand for the people of this nation who are not afraid of the future.

We saw a leader of the majority in the Senate hide behind his office, and not until the President laid his own head on the chopping block did he meekly say I think you're wrong, Mr. President.

We saw a President who has an apparent personality disorder that doesn't allow him to tell the objective truth.

Our President can only say what he thinks we want to hear.

Our President sees no difference between doing what is right and what is wrong as long as he gets his way.

This week, we also observed the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, who kept it real.

Keeping it real.

What does that mean to you?

As you progress through life and age, you may develop wisdom.

Where wisdom comes from is learning from your mistakes.

If you don't learn from your mistakes, that's a sign too.

Time and time again, the President makes the same mistake.

The mistake that the President makes is that he believes we don't care.

We don't care about refugees.

We don't care about those who don't have health care.

We don't care about government workers.

We don't care about non-white people.

We don't care about what this nation has stood for these past 200-plus years.

This nation has stood for freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

He believes we will all be satisfied with the status quo, with White men making all the decisions and everyone else waiting around to serve them.

That's the world from which he came.

From his perspective, he's…

Keeping it real.

Physicians take an oath.

That oath they swear to says they are to do no harm.

They are to do no harm.

I think our elected officials, from dog catchers to Presidents, should take that same oath.

To do no harm.

Harming people for the sake of political power or gain is evil.

Sociopaths the world over practice that ideal as a large part of their personal philosophy.

In the book The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout, Ph.D., tells us that 1 in 25 people are sociopaths.

That means if you know 100 people, 4 of them are sociopaths.

The sociopath is the one who's making trouble and never taking responsibility for the disaster they created.

Doesn't that sound like the President?

Should the President be pitied?

No.

He knows the difference between good and evil but doesn't care which device he employs as long as he gets his orgasm, no matter what that may entail.

We, as a nation, are learning what it means to have a president with this kind of personality disorder.

I've said before that I have had a personal experience with a sociopath who almost destroyed my life.

It is both illuminating and tragic to see our nation go through the same experience I had, as we, as a nation, suffer at the hands of this man, our President.

Keeping it real.

Remember.

This, too, shall pass.

We will all learn from our mistakes.

Will we protect ourselves in the future from repeating this tragedy?

On the other hand, as a nation, will we learn to take better care of ourselves, and will we become better people?

Keeping it real.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 find that thing that comforts you.

Hot chocolate does it for some.

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

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

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

Life comes in cycles, a phenomenon recognized by people worldwide.

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 is defined as a remarkable individual.

That's one definition, but it's 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, 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 and is a sexual predator.

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

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

A person with Character can be anyone, regardless of their size, age, wealth, or social status.

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

We celebrate the differences.

Each and everyone has a responsibility and 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 lies in creating as much turmoil as possible.

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 bears afraid of the change of season.

Their eyes strain at the brightness and 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?

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

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Found and Lost

Found in history…

The communist GDR, the German Democratic Republic, was fearful that its citizens were tempted by the sins of the West and erected a wall to keep them safe from temptation around them.

In reality, it was a wall of tyranny to keep a people subjugated to the will of the Soviet Union, formerly Russia, ruled by non-religious oligarchs of a type of organized crime state.

The GDR soon realized that the Berlin Wall kept the sheep in but did nothing to prevent freedom from seeping into the minds of the people of East Germany.

Lost…

The Wall failed in its purpose; the year was 1989.

Found in history…

Construction began in 122 AD in the province of Britannia, the farthest northern border of the Roman Empire, under the rule of Hadrian.

The purpose was to draw a line in the woods of Britannia, later to be known as Great Britain, to keep the annoying raids conducted by the barbarous Picts, the northern city-states of the common area of Britannia.

You can also attribute the construction of the Wall to the voices heard in the heads of the Roman aristocracy, who believed the gods had instructed them that a wall was needed to encircle the entirety of their Empire, thereby establishing its importance to the world.

Hadrian's Wall stretched from the Atlantic to the Dover coast with an average height of 4 feet or 1.2m.

People must have been remarkably short in stature back then because the average person today could easily trip and roll over Hadrian's Wall without any planning.

The Wall stood, but the Roman Empire did not.

Lost…

Hadrian's Wall fell out of memory, its purpose lost to the narcissistic whims of a former aristocracy.

Found in history…

The Greatest Wall!

The power of tyrants lies in their ability to instill fear, whether real or perceived.

The emperors of China and the Mongols had been engaged in a centuries-long war.

The Chinese emperor had the noble notion of erecting a wall across their entire northern border to keep out the obviously inferior northern tribes from immigrating and diluting their culture.

Construction of what was to be called The Great Wall of China began in 220 BC and continued till 206 BC.

A Great Wall it was indeed.

Strong, high, thick, and made of the best stones ever.

Ever…

In the 14th century, the Ming Dynasty built the Wall higher, stronger, and faster than anyone had ever done before.

It could stop an army.

It did stop armies.

But it couldn't stop corruption and betrayal in the Chinese aristocracy.

The Wall failed.

Lost.

Found and lost.

Walls are built by tyrants, but not alone.

Walls are built by people who are afraid.

We, the people of the United States, have never been afraid.

A strong people are not afraid.

It is reasonable to give voice to both protection and defense.

However, fear is not a position from which we Americans have historically made decisions.

Fear, in its primal form, allows those who are in the midst of the discussion to be manipulated by tyrants.

Those who are afraid will say or do anything; they will parrot the tyrant's mindset in an attempt to alleviate their fear.

A wall is a projection of fear.

It has been a part of human history.

Like children hiding under the covers in the dark of night, a nation, 

a people cannot hide from the reality of this world behind a wall of concrete and steel.

They cannot hide from the economic and political problems they have contributed to.

There are no guarantees.

Yet, this nation was founded upon the idea of freedom.

A freedom-loving people do not hide behind a wall.

A freedom-loving people stand against the headwind and face the dilemma with resolution.

A resolution born out of that specific knowledge that from strength comes responsibility.

That's right!

A nation with great strength has a great responsibility to protect its citizens, but to reach out to the world, it must do so with the steady hand of love.

We have nothing to fear.

Found.

Love asks more.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

RESPECT

I personally have never achieved respect.

Just like Rodney Dangerfield said, "I get no respect!"

I know that out in the world at large, some people believe they deserve respect.

I know that these same people also believe that they are owed respect.

Respect, where does it come from?

What is respect?

Respect means to genuinely admire someone or something due to their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Does just existing earn you respect?

Like a child is supposed to respect their parents.

But what if the parents neglect or abuse the child? 

Does the child still require respect for their guardian?

If a poll could be taken asking if your parents were flawless, having a perfect set of parents is akin to the same odds as being struck by lightning.

The odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 3,000.

Those odds seem low to me, based on my own experience of being struck by lightning three times in my life so far.

I thought I was unique.

I get no respect from lighting, either.

Respect.

Respect is earned, never given.

Respect is earned, never given.

Respect is earned, never given.

Two figures this past week entered the Thunder Dome of Respect.

One lost respect.

The other earned respect.

Our President, Donald Trump, lost respect when he demanded it of the former head of the CIA, John Brennan.

Admittedly, our President has been on a slide, losing respect from the nation, starting with his inauguration.

Trump's high-water mark for respect was the day of his inauguration.

Every minute of the day since, he's been shoveling crap as hard as he can, demanding respect and personal loyalty.

He's obviously losing respect.

The second, the winner of all time, is the one and only Aretha Franklin.

She earns all of our respect for her character.

She earns our respect for using her gift to uplift us all.

It is our privilege to have been witnesses to her talent, her style, and her grace.

It is humbling to know that a great soul, an angel, walked among us.

Her hands reached out to touch us here on the edge of darkness to pull us back to the light.

Her grace was amazing.

Thank you, Aretha Franklin, for sharing yourself with us.

Respect.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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.

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

Some of the changes are welcome.

The look on your child's face 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 it's 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 lingering 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.

Its beat and melody are unfamiliar to the ears of an older generation, yet, at its heart, its driving beat is 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 spirit of their children has lifted up the eyes of a nation.

March for Our Lives.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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.

Death claims everyone.

You get just one chance at this life.

But you can, with compassion, do the thing that we all can recognize as 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

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Charlottesville, Virginia

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 to 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,

Believing 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 wearing a white suit.

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.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby