Heart Of Darkness

Where does discrimination come from?

Why do we allow people to suffer?

What is the belief that allows us to kill?

When was the last time you admitted you were wrong?

Where was the last place you cried?

Why can't our leaders hear people ask for their freedom?

What will people say about you behind your back?

When will racism end?

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically 

bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that 

the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood 

can never become a reality." – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The other day, a man woke up.

He may have had a plan for how that day might have wound up, but…

We can all recognize that the outcome was not what he intended.

Like so many people before him, fate chooses us without asking.

George Floyd woke that day and did not know he would be dead before sunset.

George's life, like so many of ours, is lived day by day.

Yes, we have an idea of where we want to go, but getting there remains hidden.

Only a few superficial people ever believe they are important.

None of us wakes up and says I'm the best.

Well, almost none of us.

No, we each try to get a piece of happiness each day.

Some days, it works out; others, it doesn't.

George Floyd was murdered by the police.

The police woke that day and didn't know they were going to start a fire that would burn around our collective consciousness.

They didn't know that their anger, their regrets, and prejudice would murder a man.

There's never been any evidence that hateful, bigoted racists ever killed anyone, right?

I can't breathe!

I can't breathe!

I can't breathe rings in those policemen's ears.

I can't breathe rings in the streets of America.

I can't breathe rings in the hearts of people across the world.

Dr. King was right.

The dark night would not hold its power over the hearts of humanity forever.

If there is a night, there will be a dawn.

Those who were faithful to pursue justice for all carried the light of truth before us.

The truth is that racism will never end.

However, the arbiter of racism is justice equally applied to all.

We have a lot of old rules in this Republic.

Rules meant to keep one People in power.

Rules written can be unwritten by better ideas.

People in the street march towards that brotherhood of man.

George Floyd blew a trumpet blast and brought down the walls.

Heroes are not created; they happen.

Let freedom ring in the morning's holy light.

As George's six-year-old daughter said, "Daddy changed the world."

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 a 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.

They

Those.

Why is that?

America sees everything through Race.

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

Left and right.

Rich and poor.

Male and female.

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 whether it will benefit the minorities.

Minorities in white America are everyone who is not white.

All others need not apply.

The racial animus, the hatred, and the focus on 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 genocidal blue light special.

COVID provided a way to decrease those on welfare.

COVID-19 provided a way to eliminate those pension checks.

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

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

Or so white racist America believes…

Or so white racist America believes…

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 worldview.

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

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

All those faces that can no longer tell their story.

Their hopes.

Their dreams.

Gone.

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

This is the carelessness of not valuing 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.

Humanity remains clueless.

The story of America is a racial one.

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

Trust one another?

Care for one another?

Learn to love 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

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 the 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 into the future.

It would appear reason and ignorance are evenly balanced.

The balance point 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 such a merciless God as this virus.

It laughs at a few hundred thousand.

The grim skull of the virus will not be complete 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 is committing a kind of social suicide.

They don't want to go alone.

They're not going without taking us with them.

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

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

What makes America 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 when hope is the arm that comforts us.

A time when 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

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Fear

Where does fear come from?  

Children are afraid of the dark.  

What lurks out in the space unseen, unknown, unfelt, unplanned for?  

But is fear a thing? 

Is it something that can be touched?  

Is it a monster under the bed?  

Is it an entity that roams and attacks us without warning?  

Or is it something inside of us?  

Is it something we tell ourselves?  

Specifically, is fear about us and not about fear itself?  

There are, of course, many things to fear.  

Spiders.  

Paper cuts.  

Snakes.  

Auto accidents.  

Plane flight.  

Job loss. 

Illness. 

Death.  

These are all things that, in their specific ways, can stop our plans.  

They are real fears.

But is that what fear is really?  

Is fear a reaction to a force that has changed our schedule?  

The COVID virus.  

This virus has changed the plans of everyone on the planet.  

It is about what viruses do; they spread and multiply.  

Our deaths are not its purpose.  

Killing off its host is not suitable for any host in the long run because it doesn't allow it to succeed.

To pass on its legacy.

Its genes. 

It wants cooperation so it can live.  

Fear. 

Our plans changed.  

Those who deny the science are living in fear of the truth.  

Their non-cooperation with social distancing and wearing a mask is couched behind a veil of personal freedom.

A mask.

Our brothers and sisters are afraid of the virus and believe spitting in the face of reason will allow them to dodge the Grim Reaper.  

Their fear allows them to take no responsibility for the despair and the death they will cause.  

Ultimately, fear is a scapegoat that creates a narrative of denial of personal responsibility to the community and self.

They are whistling past the graveyard.

Who is the conductor of the tune?  

The Devil made me do it.  

The virus needs no help to kill.  

But those who need our help are those who live in fear.

Fear is a mask.  

America is going to live through a time that it has never seen before.  Simple algebra can demonstrate real fear.  

As the statistics demonstrate, only 5% of the US population has been exposed to the virus, with 85K deaths.  

What happens when there is no vaccine and 100% of the population is exposed?

How many people will have perished?  

North of 1.5 million Americans.  

That's the number the CDC has been gagged from telling.  

That's the human tragedy that's being kept from the airwaves.  

That is a real fear.  

Yet fear can stimulate courage.  

Fear can grow purpose.  

Fear can challenge a people and a person to do what is right.  

Without fear, we wouldn't know what love is.  

Love will see all of us through this time.  

Love will brush aside the terror of the night to reveal the truth of the day.  

See those who are living in fear and give them hope by your example.  

Wear your mask with pride, knowing you're saving others' lives, not just your own.  

It is only through looking out for each other that we will get to our joy together.  

Darkness is the nature of the universe; each of us is a light in that eternal night, which is why we each have an obligation to tend to that light called hope.  

The moon, silent, went on a stroll between the stars, and when it looked down on the earth there, it saw even more stars all the same above and below.  

Peace.  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 Obamacare.

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 the feds.

If you are a minority and have gotten a loan to start a business.

If you are a racial minority, a woman, or gay, asking 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.

You are a taker.

You are a taker.

Isn't that strange?

Humans come in two varieties.

Those who share and those who can't.

Conservatives conserve; they don't believe in sharing.

Those who believe in sharing are labeled as takers with derogatory slang.

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.

We all share in carrying the load.

The load is the burden of everyday life.

That's why communities formed.

Communities are formed so we all don't have to repeat individually what we can all do together.

We share the load.

Those who 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.

They're going to scream they don't help.

So we have to be an example of community.

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 who live under the burden of fear may find happiness.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Politics

At its roots, politics is about keeping power at any cost. 

The founders of our nation believed they had crafted a document that would stand against the sociopathic bent of previous generations of man's tyranny.

It has withstood the test of the past 200 years until it met those with no faith in government.

Those who hate people.

Those who have had no faith in the institutions of government have always been in the shadows.

In past centuries, they were called anarchists.

Individuals in movements that believed you had to burn the barn down to save the cows.

The individuals found like minds who thought it more comfortable to destroy than to build.

Building means profit.

A belief in slashing and burning the past to secure the future.

To throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Acceptable casualties. 

It's what gave us the First World War.

A war between aristocrats who used the lives of the common man as their toilet paper.

The anarchists learned from their defeat and transformed themselves into nihilists.

Nihilism is the belief that humanity and all of its efforts amount to nothing. 

Why bother.

Why work for a better world?

What stands in the way of us having nice things is people who don't like you and me.

The nihilist doesn't like people.

A type of nihilism created Fascism, which rose against communities of workers who wanted an equal footing with the ownership class.

Fascism arose to counteract the rise of Trade Unions.

Fascists, the attack dogs who tore into the throats of organized labor at the 'dog whistle' of the institution of capitalism.

Only the best need apply, and so the German people followed their new modern sociopath into yet another world war brought to us by national white elitists.

The fascists lost that bout yet again, but they were not down for the count. 

They organized for a rematch.

Those who hate humanity but love themselves realized maybe they were too bold. 

They sank like a heavy anchor into the depths of society.

There, they whispered into the ears of those who would listen.

We can give you power.

We can restore your homeland.

Your homeland...

We can make America great again.

They found ears, hearts, and minds willing to absorb their doctrine in conservative America.

Using the goodwill of people, they leveraged their innate fear of change to slowly but surely construct a platform of intolerance.

They found a voice in Ronald Regan, who said the government was the problem.

They found a movement in fiscal conservatism.

The Tea Party.

Neo-Conservatism.

They found tax dodgers, racists, and evangelicals, all who had a common ground.

They hate people.

They didn't want "change."

Who was responsible for forcing the silent majority to change?

The black, the brown, women, the queer, the liberal, the godless.

Nihilism took hold of the pumping heart of the Republican Party, emptied its red blood, and transfused it with hate.

Let the government become so weak that we can drown it in a bathtub became the cry.

Then something strange happened quite recently…

Life.

A virus.

It didn't care what the politics of the day were.

It didn't care if you believed in it or not.

As if it were tailor-made for the day at hand, it has the ability to trim the fringe.

Those who don't believe in science have been trimmed. 

Those who don't believe in community have been trimmed.

Those who don't believe in government trimming. 

Those who believe no one has the right to tell them no, it has been trimmed.

Our bodies our choice?

Our bodies our choice!

Kind of ironic...

Most of us, dare I say a majority, believe that we should all work together to save ourselves, which will save the world, right?

If we go out too soon, we risk making the second, the third, the fourth wave even bigger than it should be if we all could practice some self-control.

Balance the good of the many with the good for a few.

Our bodies our choice!

Our bodies our choice!

Burn the barn to save the cows? 

Ridiculous rhetoric of the past, but the current policy of the GOP. 

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Angels

I have seen them on the Earth.

As an orderly for five years.

As the son of an RN, Elaine Frey.

As the husband of RN Denny Frey, she 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 had 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 cared for when I was sick, told to take my medicine, and forced to drink fluids.

Brotherhood, as they helped me prepare the bodies of those who had passed to take to the morgue.

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

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

The Doctors ate them.

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

Was there as they filled out the patients' chart?

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

Assisted in holding the patient while they cleaned and washed those who had soiled themselves.

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

Was there when it was their last day.

Angels.

They were there when they retired.

There when they put their feet up.

The hands of a nurse are a contradiction.

They are strong and able to turn 300-pound patients.

They are rough and 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.

Angels 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.

Catch us as we fall.

Angels who bring the light of hope.

Thank you.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 Jewish 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've got to save the economy, so Grandpa and Grandma should be happy to give up their lives to keep the economy growing.

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 ocean of chaos, anger, and 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 shed a bright light on the cracks in our society.

Some may have believed our American society was whole and sound.

In the light of this crisis, significant rifts have been exposed.

The poor are dying in higher numbers.

The old are dying in higher numbers.

Black and brown people are dying at higher numbers.

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

BANG!

We hit the ground.

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 is that it can show you where you want to go.

But then you have to walk the walk.

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 want our government to be of and by the people, caring for and protecting us universally.

Who is my brother? 

Who is my sister?

We stand for the value of one human life.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Time

How have our expectations of what, where, and who we are 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 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 is put on hold.  

Put on a shelf for another time, a future place.  

Who has been changed?  

The nurse is 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 is reusing their PPE.  

The construction worker is currently out of work because all projects have been put on hold.  

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

All of us have been changed to some degree by this event.  

This crisis.  

This space.  

This time.  

Change comes, but not in the way we expect it to.  

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, and become hope.  

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

The second way leads to making the world better.

Better...worse...better...worse?  

This crisis has exposed the rot in our world.  

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

We need a better healthcare 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 wealth 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.

No more waiting till the last minute.  

You are the hope the world is waiting for.  

Peace.  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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 free from interference from the State.

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 the government or others.

The self-made man.

This whole conservative mindset of killing off 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.

This sociopathic mindset is found in conservative circles, on Wall Street, in corporations, and in traditional religious faiths here and around the world.

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 viral tiger in our streets.

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

Blatant profiteering is taking place by friends of this President.

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

Those who work together will survive.

Those who cooperate will thrive.

Those who 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 the community, and their hatred of the federal government will find that Tiger will not pass by their door.

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.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

A Quiet

When dreams are lost to reality.  

When day becomes night.  

When anger transforms into action. 

A quiet comes down.  

As the reality of this virus impinges on our lives.  

As the reality of leadership is met, while others fail.  

As the reality of mortality looks each of us square in the face. 

A quiet comes down.  

A quiet comes down.  

In this time of quiet, things that were once obscured become clear.  

The warmth of hot coffee.  

The warmth of friends' laughter.  

The warmth of love passed.  

Love present.  

A quiet comes down.

A quiet comes down.  

Days turn into starry nights.  

Days turn into loud, defiant voices.  

Days turn into the face of the moon.  

Tomorrow comes.  

A quiet comes down.  

Together we can find a quiet place.  

Together, our compassion will get us through this year of pain.  

Together, united in a bond that transcends all of time and distance.

We call love…  

When I am scared and alone.  

And the world has turned cold and gray.  

I think of the beautiful faces of my friends.  

I am not alone anymore.  

A quiet comes down.

A quiet comes down.  

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where We Stand

Right and wrong.

Right and left.

Right and doing nothing.

Right, and being alone.

Right is right.

What are the consequences of doing right?

It takes energy to do what is right as much as it takes to do what is wrong.

For the most part, most of us like to stand in the gray area.

That place in-between where we don't have to react.

We don't have to lift a finger.

We don't have to have any anxiety.

We don't have to fear if we are right or wrong.

The silent majority.

We can be left alone.

A truth.

To set a standard and to declare what is right versus what is wrong ultimately will shine the spotlight of scorn and ridicule upon you.

Why?

Do you know the old adage about the crabs in a barrel?

One of the crabs wanted to know what was outside of its world.

What was outside of the barrel that all of the other crabs were trapped in?

There were tales of the great beyond where everything you ever wanted came true.

There were also tales of monsters of dark creatures that would devour you.

This crab decided to crawl out despite being warned that it would be dangerous, as its fellow crabs had advised against it.

Well, just as the crab started to crawl out, the other crabs grabbed hold of it and pulled it back into the barrel.

Ultimately, they all found themselves on that night's menu.

They made their own worst fears come true.

They did nothing.

Doing what's right makes people angry.

Why?

It forces a spotlight upon their own lives, revealing their apathy.

Their nihilism.

Their unwillingness to put out the fire.

They don't want that hot light upon them to say what is right because they don't want to face the possibility that they might be wrong.

Even in the face of certitude, what is obviously the right thing to do.

If a child is sexually attacked, the person obfuscates and pretends they don't actually see.

They don't understand why they have a responsibility to step in and stop it.

Christians have a misinterpretation of the biblical passage of not judging others.

All recorded civilizations and societies have had a sense of morality.

What is right and what is wrong.

If judging were wrong, there would be no courts and no one in prison for theft, rape, or murder.

Anarchy would rule.

Taking a stand throughout the history of humankind against what is wrong has placed obvious targets upon these individuals who did.

But let's bring it down to everyday living?

The next time you're at dinner with your family and your uncle makes a racist joke, do you call them out on it?

When you're on the bus, and your bag is sitting on the seat next to you, do you pick it up so that the stranger can have a seat?

When you see a cop beating up on a guy, do you call for restraint?

You can see that your congressional district is gerrymandered.

Do you call out your politicians to make it fair for all voters?

If you know a neighbor is alone during this time of the pandemic, do you check in with them to see if they need anything?

These are a few examples of doing the right thing in everyday life.

They may be easy for you, difficult for others.

Doing the right thing will always bring about consequences.

For every action, there is a reaction.

Doing the right thing in the face of wrong, doing the right thing ultimately in the face of evil, will leave you in an empty space.

Separated from the crowd.

I've personally found myself many times in that lonely space.

Most days, I feel like I stand at the edge of an abyss, calling out but hearing nothing coming back.

I recognize it is a tired world we all live in.

Now, we are more separated because of this health crisis.

The effort to do what is right is neglected by many.

Given lip service by most.

The darkness of the world is borne by a few.

As Mark Twain said, "Wages of doing what is right versus what is wrong is the same."

Most of what we do on this journey called life will never be recognized or appreciated beyond our own recollection of events.

Our good works will be buried with us.

However…

Count me as standing against evil till the end of time.

Standing against the wicked.

Standing against the corrupt.

A warrior for the light.

Giving comfort to the tired, the lonely, the sick.

For it is only in that blessed light that, once shown into darkness, can it release the enslavement of man's mind to the shackles of other people's tyranny.

We are bound together.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Who is at the Door?

Fear is at the door. 

We can choose to ignore it.  

We can choose to confront it.  

The irony of life is that those who are the smallest and forgotten have considerable courage, and the self-proclaimed best among us have no courage at all.  

Our President, the current captain of the ship of state, wanders the halls of the White House, stroking his ego.  

His officials under him refuse to answer truthfully about the wolf nipping at our heels.   

This President and the GOP leadership are hobbled by their own hatred of self, which manifests itself in a hatred of humanity.  

This is not the end of the world.  

This is yet another chance for the world to come together and change its social-political-spiritual habits.  

It is a moment to throw wide the door and let the breeze of truth blow out the dusty darkness in our collective souls.  

When trouble comes, it is then that the mind focuses on how much we need each other.  

When darkness falls, we all join together and take comfort in the light of compassion.  

This is a moment to realize deep down that life is about the "Now."  

It is about living. 

Life is not about saving for that end, that retirement, that last moment of existence.  

This life today, not tomorrow, is about the everyday texture, the ups and the downs; that is what it means to live.

To live a life waiting for the next is to waste this one with a healthy dose of spite as a chaser.

Irony teaches those with a sense of humor in the juxtaposition of opposites.  

How funny that death stands at the door; it can teach us so much about how to live.  

We will live through this.  

We will learn.  

We will learn that compassion begins between you and me and spreads to touch all hearts, even if they don't get it.  

We will learn that love is the only power in this world that can conquer a disease.  

Love is the only power that can conquer hate.  

Take care of yourself and others, and know you are loved.  

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Open

The purpose of Brain Blog is to raise awareness of politics and how it affects the human spirit.  

Consider the current economic state of the average American.  

It sucks.  

For over 35 years now, wages have been stagnant at the expense of corporate America, seeing record profits and growing the stock market to points a generation ago would have believed insanity.

CEOs and their executives and boards continue up the economic ladder while those who make a profit see their wages paralyzed. 

Concurrently, the average citizen grows older, sees their dreams die, and their hopes vanish; the future has no place for them.  

This creates fear.  

When people are fearful, they will do anything to escape that fear.  

They will discriminate against their neighbor.  

They will arm themselves against the stranger.  

They will blame all their woes on the immigrants.  

They will believe in the person who supports their fears.  

They will consume opioids until they die to keep the fear away.  

Their fear is real.  

Those who fear are desperate; they will try anything to keep the wolves from consuming them and theirs.  

The fearful are used by the wolves.  

Both good wolves and dire wolves.  

Wolves who promise everything you want can be free.  

Wolves who promise that once they get rid of the outsider, America will be great again. 

At some point, Americans will come to realize they are between a rock and a hard place.  

Who should they believe?

Who should they believe...  

They should believe in themselves.  

They have to stop waiting for an economical, social Jesus to raise them out of their economic tomb.  

They have to step into the role of an adult and accept that they can control their own future.  

They must open their eyes.  

To open one's eyes means to see the truth, no matter how much it might disturb the story you tell yourself.  

To open one's eyes takes a kind of simple courage.  

An act of courage based upon the idea, "What if I am wrong?"  

Eyes that are open see the wolves in sheep's clothing.  

Eyes that are open can navigate the stories told to get to the truth. 

Eyes that are open will recognize that not all of humanity is getting out of life alive and unscathed.  

These eyes will understand that we need each other to survive this life with any hope of happiness.  

Eyes that are open accept responsibility and boldly step forward to stand for justice for all.  

An economy for all.  

Happiness for all.  

Love for all.  

The fearful must open their hearts if they want a better life.  

To open your heart is to live by compassion but recognize that evil requires judgment.  

An open heart recognizes that when a person has done their time, they are to be welcomed home with open arms.  

An open heart sees the fear of families fleeing for their lives at our borders and opens the golden gate of refuge freely.  

Open hearts can hear people cry.

Open hearts can't ignore real problems.  

Hearts are funny things.  

Once broken, they can either heal and grow or become hate-filled and twisted.  

The heart is the hardest working muscle in the human body, and yet it can be the softest.  

In this yet another political season, your hearts and eyes are needed.  

Who can you believe?  

Who can you trust? 

Who will deliver the goods?  

Eyes and hearts that are open will step forward and do the right thing.

They will vote.  

Many will not want to do the right thing and keep their eyes and hearts closed.  

Afraid of change.  

But a change will happen one way or another.  

The universe just works that way.  

Life equals change.  

Life is in constant flux, and that flux seeks goodness.  

Why pursue the common good?

So that more people can be happy? 

More people can prosper.  

That is what the living pushes for.  

It pushes against those people who do not believe or want a common good for all.  

But funny thing…  

The hard hearts have consistently failed to stop goodness and happiness from spreading.  

Those who don't believe in hope for all.  

Can't keep good people down for long.  

So, consider whether you believe in prioritizing your own self-interest or the common good.  

If you believe in keeping your hands in your pockets.  

If you believe everyone else is wrong and you are right.  

If you believe the economic and political stagnation in America is because of immigrants, minorities, women, and gays.  

If you do, you are working against the nature of the universe. 

The universe smiles, its eyes and heart open, waiting for you to open yours.  

Join us.  

Make the world better today.  

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where Are We?

At this moment in time, are we witnessing a fundamental change in the American electorate?

In the past, presidential candidates did not strut themselves for two years before the election.

Traditionally, there would be at most three candidates who would necessarily announce their candidacy just before the beginning of the election year.

Then Iowa would have its caucus, sort of a coming-out party, get-to-know-you introduction to the nation.

Then, New Hampshire would be an afternoon tea for the potential voters.

Then South Carolina would be a backyard barbecue where hotter voices would emerge.

Then Super Tuesday would and still determines who the candidate will be.

Here we are in 2020 there is a whole different paradigm confronting us.

All the traditional models are out the window.

The current president got elected by throwing out the norms and attacking the weaknesses in our American election process.

Presidential elections are now two-year-plus election marathons.

Death marches to self-imposed irrelevance.

What isn’t or hasn’t become irrelevant is the physics behind the elections.

For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Everyone thought Obama would make the middle and working-class lives better.

Due to racial circumstances beyond his control, the House and Senate blocked every effort to improve the economic stagnation that the middle and working class have been living through these past 35 years.

The Republicans want to eliminate the Federal Government so their plan is to do nothing.

No legislation.

Well, if the intellectual couldn’t get this nation out of the mud, maybe the horse's ass could thought middle Americans? 

I’m very familiar with the far right, and a simple majority of my family and friends are.

They all know the current occupant is not the roundest marble in the pouch. 

He’s crooked as the day is long.

But they wanted someone, anyone, even a racist, sexual predator, low-level New York City real estate con-man organized crime friend who they believed could change the system.

The paradigm of American stagnation.

But the current occupant couldn’t deliver either.

He’s been too interested in undoing his predecessor's achievements and enriching himself to actually shepherd the House or Senate with any legislative proposals that would benefit us.

So here we are, this election cycle, and what are we learning? 

So far, the Democrats in the nation are teaching us that they are hungry to go even farther to the left.

Remember, Trump and his locking up kids, daily lying about everything, impeachment, and daily lying about everything, are creating an opposite and equal reaction.

The Democrats are desperate for ideological political purity.

Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada have demonstrated that.

What it also demonstrated in Nevada is that young people are voting in apparent larger numbers and that the Latino vote is also looking for purity too.

What will South Carolina say about what the Black vote is looking for among the Democrats?

The question is, is this the moment in time that the electorate shifts to European-style socialism?

Finally?

What was thought of before as a third rail is now not only demanded but supported by a majority?

Is the impossible, socially and economically, now possible?

Has desperate economic stagnation, unregulated capitalism, corporate welfare, and tax evasion finally filled the American belly with enough resolve to overturn the American ideal of capitalism as our Lord and King with no restraints?

It is evident that all of the models used to predict past elections are useless. 

Polls are for suckers.

Polls can be manipulated, and paid off by the highest dark money spender. 

What won’t lie to us is numbers.

Numbers who vote.

Numbers who march.

Those who speak up.

Numbers who believe that now is the time that change will finally come.

Change always and will always arrive in precisely the way we didn’t believe it could.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where Are The Hero's

The boy stands on the corner of the street.

His mind races, not hearing the questions that pummel him from the bystanders.

At his feet lies his father.

Voices converge all around him.

Is he drunk?

Are you lost?

Who is that old man?

Look at that piece of shit.

The boy can't cry out.

His mind caught by jagged thoughts.

Thoughts that back him into a choking, dark corner.

As time comes to a stop…

A hand reaches past the boy and checks for a pulse on the neck of the fallen guardian.

The same hands flex, move the body into position, force life back into the tired heart.

Who are the strong?

Where is compassion?

The heart knows what the mind cannot conceive.

The hero does what is needed.

A 911 call to our future...

The answer to all of our problems lies within the ideal of the hero that is in each of us.

Not born of radiation.

Not created by Gods.

Not given birth by a miracle of DNA manipulation.

We all know what the right thing to do is.

What prevents us from moving forward is the familiarity of our own doleful ignorance.

Our collective refusal to accept that everything changes.

Nothing has ever in the entire universe stayed the same.

We either accept that, or we find ourselves at odds with the universe.

We will find ourselves always at odds with the news, with people in line, in traffic, at the grocery store, at the DMV, at places of worship, at places of amusement, fellow diners, our community, our neighbor next door.

The list is as endless as living itself.

We can make the promise of heaven here and now.

We, the heroes, can accept the call of the future, too.

"Do Right Now."

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

What The Righteous Hear

There is a portion of American society that likes to tell everyone how terrible we are.

Yes, I mean those particular followers of Jesus, who at every opportunity like to hammer into our heads the story of their Lord and Savior as if we haven't heard it before.

Our brains are so addled by our sins we can't remember anything we are told.

However, I have found through my lifetime of experience in the far-right community that these followers hear a different set of words than what is written.

They read the same text as you or me and hear something completely different as it applies to them.

Curious?

The following quotes are what these 'good people' believe as their interpretation of their holy text.

– You shall love your neighbor if they are white, and if they are not white, you can ignore them, for they are cursed by your God.

– No one can serve two masters. Serve profit first, and your fellow man can take care of himself. Tell the unwashed to get a job you lazy welfare cheat. Stop stealing good people's hard-earned money.

– Judge not people who are white like you. Condemn those who do not look like you.

– You shall love your God with your whole heart. This doesn't leave room for anyone else, and they are going to hell anyway.

– For what shall it profit a man, if he works hard all his life and in the end has to share it with the monkey races.

– A new command I give you, love one another. But you faggots who love the same sex need to die so I can sleep at night, not thinking about what you're doing.

– Blessed are the merciful. Yet all of you who have used drugs a special place in hell is reserved for that scum.

– Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone. Oh! He's talking to me. I'll throw a boulder at those asshole, non-christian, anti-Christmas, mongrel races. Especially at those godless Muslims trying to take over my government and my community.

– Suffer the little children, and forbid them not. Abortion, contraception, and prenatal care are all the diabolical plans of Satan. All those abortion-loving baby murderers need to dive headfirst into a wood chipper. Jesus would love that I pray in Jesus' name.

– If you want to be perfect, go, and help the rich get richer because one day, they'll let you into their golden mansions and make you a billionaire too, no joke.

– For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, to save the White man from the other dirty races of the world, to live an everlasting White life in heaven, separate and not equal, because our God plays favorites.

How terrible are we?

It's a hard reality that the loudest voices of condemnation out of the religious right, as well as that silent moderate majority, are so afraid of the world we all live in.

Anger that the world isn't fair needs a scapegoat for far too many people.

It is far easier for angry people to blame others than take on the personal responsibility that comes with living.

Making the world better begins with you.

The world is what you actually make of it.

If you see the enemy at every turn, every corner, behind everything you don't want to understand, you will find what you are looking for.

Hate is easy.

Love is difficult.

Let us help melt the hardened wax in the ears and warm the hearts of those who live in the cold fear of the stranger.

Be the hope that the world needs.

As a failed carpenter once said…

Love one another.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where Is Love

Oliver Twist in the musical Oliver laments and prays about the whereabouts of love while he's locked in the basement of a funeral parlor where he's an indentured servant.

This scene is no allegory.

There are no hidden meanings here.

He's trapped in a dark world where the light of love refuses to shine for him.

I want to ask the same question, where is love?

A lot of us think we know what it means.

We believe we have it, want it, can express it, and know when it's being shown towards us.

But knowing the definition doesn't mean we can actually do it.

I know the definition of a pole-vaulter, but if I attempted an even modest leap, my lack of understanding of its meaning would result in a spectacular YouTube-worthy fail.

I have no experience or success at pole vaulting.

Love is an ideal that many attempt, but few will be able to stick the landing.

However, you can find a few gold medal winners Mother Teresa, Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Lao Tzu…

Strong voices of love are not only in the past.

You can find among all of us strong hearts who can lead a workout class in love.

Love is the hardest emotion to understand with the intellect; it defies logic because it's the language of the soul, the song of the heart.

We're all tone-deaf; we can't hear the melody or the lyric.

Like Oliver, we're all locked in a dark world that mistreats us, batters our souls misshapes our perceptions, ignites anger, walls out understanding, and whispers lies telling us we're misunderstood, alone, unwanted.

We cannot tell the difference between the noise of fear and the soft whisper of love.

Be the answer to Oliver's prayer.

Act with love.

Do it today.

Please do it for yourself first.

If you can't forgive yourself, you can't forgive others.

To love the world begins by loving yourself.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Easy Money

When you get that ad on Facebook for a miracle grocery bag that could hang in your cart while you shop? 

You know, it looked great, and you had to have it right! 

When you used it for the first time, and it ripped apart when you dropped a package of raspberries in it, did you think to yourself I was demographically targeted by a business participant in global corruption?

Just the other day, when you put your check in your financial institution and had a few words about why the banking fees seem to jump around so much?

Did you ask yourself if the banks were honest with you about their costs escalating?

Then that night on TV, you saw that the same bank was laundering money for Russian Oligarchs, and the US Justice Department hit your bank with a $7.2 billion fine. 

Did you think to yourself I'm participating in global corruption?

You look at your news feed, and it's filled with stories about your President, his friends, and family, all denying that they even know where Russia is, let alone whether they would ever use Russian dressing on their mixed green salad. 

They have never talked, chatted, poked, listened, spoken, written, or have the occasion to know a Russian. 

Yet all these people and others, including you and I, make investments in mutual funds, campaign donations, real estate, building projects, in business start-ups whose locations span the globe.

I'm asking…?

Are you consciously aware of, or are you in denial that you may be contributing to corruption worldwide?

Does ignorance of your participation isolate you from prosecution? 

From guilt?

Personal corruption used to be a locally raised product. 

Your city councilman, your mayor, and your chief of police 'looked the other way' as local businessman conducted their business that did not fit within either our agreed Legal system or moral parameters. 

They got money put into their pockets, they got their driveway repaved, they got free donuts, a free lunch, or a new car.

Then the 80s came along, and there was an upsurge in business graduates all looking to make it big on Wall Street and K Street. 

Pie charts, flow charts, charts about charts, who buys what, when, and where.  

Bottom line how can businesses squeeze more profit out without actually doing more work?

More specifically, hire less, less benefits. 

There were resources of cash out in the world that were not being gathered by the right people.

Utilization. 

How to attract people's savings into the markets so we can gamble the future with their money, not ours?

Consequently, the rise of the middle-class investing in mutual funds was the starter pistol going off with a bang for the official race which is the globalization of corruption. 

With your investment in your future, you were told you are securing the lifestyle you deserve. 

Well...

There were others out there who wanted more, too.  

The wolves, the bandits, the oligarchs, your average billionaire. 

The scheme? 

The expansion of corporations, of LLCs, of mutual funds, of political fundraising groups, all of which could be formed and created by people who did not live in your country.

The Supreme Court passed Citizens United, saying it's okay for dark money to speak for corporations, as well as it turns out, anyone else, both foreign and domestic, in our politics.

This includes investments in business, false fronts, the credit card industry, and online gambling.  

The false front, the sting, was made legal through the cooperation of both political parties in the United States. 

The skeezy became tolerable.

The public is too lazy to care.

Profitable.

Corruption became a one-stop location just like your corner, 711. 

As you are picking up your smokes, drop a dirty hundred thousand from legal and illegal drug sales, arms sales, illegal real-estate sales, and human trafficking into a political action committee fundraiser.

The political action committee then puts that money into their clean bank, and then they write you a check on the other side, thanking you for your participation in lifting their candidate into the public eye. 

Everyone wins: the politician, the oligarch, and the bank.

You are a patriot.

We will make your country great again.

Translation…

Your newly bought and paid-for politician will make sure they will dial back on the equal rights for all brown people, women, and gays.

We will restore the white people of this nation to their rightful place.

Your modern-era political parties are at work.

Easy huh!

It used to be that corruption was conducted by the bent-nose thug in your community. 

Today, that thug includes those from other countries who then funnel money into your local, state, or federal Chamber of Commerce members. 

Who then look the other way as they forego inspections, EPA laws, and the last 100 years of equal justice for the working man.

Each day, the members in this global scheme plan a trip to a community bathhouse where they wash each other's crimes and give each other clean clothes on the other side.

Easy huh!

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Mac and Cheese

Comfort, who doesn't have a favorite food? 

Even the dead, if awoken, would respond with a favorite respite. 

The range covers the whole world of food from salty to sweet, from sour to bitter, and from the bland to the rich.

Mac and cheese. 

Near the top of most people's favorite foods, at least in the West. 

A comfort food which is given to children who fondly remember it into adulthood. 

A  simple, cheap dish as most comfort foods are.

There's a schism between store-bought pre-packed mac and cheese versus the homemade variety. 

The average child and teen will demand the store-bought pre-packed. 

Adults with their supposed refined taste pretend the homemade weak runny and burnt variety is the best.

Americans love of simple comfort.

No effort.

No demands.

Like switching on a channel on TV that broadcasts nothing but static.

Comfort as white noise.

Comfort without effort, the American way. 

An understandable reaction to a world that requires energy to be truly comfortable.

It takes energy to be convenient.

But people are not by their very nature convenient.

The public, as well as individuals, are inconvenient.

People have to have energy to not just survive but to thrive.

Their problems, their influence, their health, and their well-being cannot be pre-packaged, fixed in 10 minutes, consumed then discarded.

To make room in our lives for other people causes us to balk.

Even to call a friend, or to visit a relative all take an effort, which will remove us from our comfort zone.

It's hard to visit that lonely person because it reminds us of our own emptiness? 

It's annoying to give a hug to that friend who won't shut up?

Isn't it annoying to look up that address to send a letter to that friend you care about?

To honestly give comfort, love asks us to step out of our own safety to help those in need of relief.

Love asks more of each one of us.

It understands we will love those we know, but it asks us to add to our tally daily.

It asks us to comfort those without comfort.

It asks us to walk in the shoes of those different from us.

It asks us to recognize that any discomfort we feel in extending ourselves into the world will be compensated through our lives being made complete.

Happiness begins when we can see outside ourselves and take hold of the larger world.

Feeling uncomfortable about the state of your community, and your government yourself is a good thing.

We find comfort among those who agree with us – growth among those who don’t. – Frank A. Clark

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby