Why Change Can't Happen

Believe me.

That's the central problem in America.

Beleif.

You can believe me or not, but understand that there is a fundamental roadblock at the heart of gun control, abortion, voting rights, civil rights, and human rights.

That roadblock is what you believe.

There has always been an error in interpretation as to what belief means.

Belief has always been a game of chance.

You either believe or you don't.

If you believe, then you are part of the club.

You get rewarded by the club.

Belief provides immediate benefits.

If you don't believe, you are somehow out of touch, sinful, against God, against me as a person who does believe.

You don't get any benefits.

You're on your own.

No club for you.

There is no fighting belief.

Once a person has committed themselves to a story, it is impossible for them to entirely let it go.

And what does belief do for us?

It feeds our prejudice.

It feeds a monster called ego, which demands that I'm the center of the universe.

Belief tells us it is right for us to be selfish.

Protect our own.

It feeds that inherent genetic childhood psychology, that feeling that I am the center of the world and that I must survive.

My needs before the other.

I am the chosen.

The one.

Consequently, in this mix in our nation, there is a group of people who firmly righteously believe they are God's chosen people.

There are organizations as well as individuals who understand the dynamics of this prejudice and exploit it for their own benefit.

For profit.

These 'brokers of evil' keep the monster called White supremacy alive, feeding it the red meat of death and destruction.

They are the gatekeepers keeping racism on sale.

These gatekeepers can be found in legislative bodies.

Sitting in judgment on legal benches.

In pulpits.

In our places of work.

In the home.

The belief that I'm better than everyone else on the planet is not limited by class, race, nationality, or income.

Belief is a cancer on the soul of mankind.

Belief served a purpose when humans were alone on a hostile planet with limited resources.

Belief is a sickness that rots society from the inside when you live in a world of abundance.

Belief keeps the individual isolated.

Isolated from reality.

Isolated from asking who is my brother who is my sister?

Belief.

What does your belief tell you right now?

Can you see people marching for their freedom?

Or do you see thieves reaching for something that doesn't belong to them?

Do you hear people crying?

Or do you see insects who got what they deserve?

Do you defend the past?

Or do you embrace the future?

Do you hate?

Do you love?

Change can't happen unless we change what we believe.

We have to stop believing and start knowing.

What do you believe?

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Madness

There are no words that will stop the madness.

Only through our actions will we gain our rightful protection from fear.

What is at the heart of gun rights madness?

What is the pillar, the rock on which some believe we have an inherent right to kill?

This country, in particular, suffers from this madness the most.

The source of the origin of this madness is nothing new.

No.

It was brought here with the arrival of Europeans to the shores of the Virginias.

It was in the hearts and minds of the Pilgrims.

It is the belief that God, the one and only Christian God, created the White race to dominate the world.

If any other race got in the way of God's will, then it was the duty of White people to put the other races in their place.

It was their duty to kill in God's name.

White people are the chosen judge, jury, and executioners of God.

The source of the origin of the gun rights madness is the belief in White supremacy.

I'm too old now to pull my punches.

It's too late to put a diplomatic spin on madness.

It's time we took the lies by the neck and kicked it out into the spotlight.

This ugliness, this vile evil fostered by timid sociopaths to keep themselves in power, has gone on too long.

Guns are tools of death.

Period.

Not everyone is qualified to work a jackhammer, are they?

They may think they can.

They may believe they can.

But they would be mad to think they could.

Tools do not have an inherent right.

WE, THE PEOPLE, and our rights to peace, happiness, and security —our rights supersede the madness that prioritizes tools over lives.

WE, THE PEOPLE, have to confront our brothers and sisters who believe in the madness of White supremacy.

You can't tell a rock to fly, no matter what you think is best for that rock.

You can't just tell a White racist to grow some compassion because it will never happen.

We have had over 2,000 years of the doctrine of love.

Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

How has that worked out?

It's a slogan that's often forgotten.

100's of millions of people have been killed around the world.

Murdered by White Christians because they knew God is on their side.

If you don't see the correlation between White people killing other races by the millions in history, in the name of their God, from the beginning of the Crusades to today, you have a bag over your head.

Until we confront the foundations of White supremacy that founded this nation, the U.S.A., we will never end the madness of gun violence.

Every Sunday, parishioners in this nation are told there is only one way to God.

They are told there is only one religion that God likes.

They are told there is only one kind of person God likes.

The White, protestant, Christian male.

All others are second-class passengers and are subject to being killed for disobeying White males.

This is the madness that is taught to our children before they can even speak.

This is what they learn in Sunday school.

I know it as a fact because I'm a witness to it.

The supremacy of the White race.

They believe this is true because why would an adult lie to them?

Somewhere, somebody, and it might be us, has to stand up and say no more forever.

Forever!

Drop hate be hope.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Brotherhood

Equality.

The word the idea of equality strikes fear in many hearts.

Not just racial equality.

No.

But intellectual, cultural, physical, and gender equality also strikes fear.

How could someone be afraid of being equal?

Being equal means I am not unique.

I am not special.

I am not chosen.

I don't get a break.

I'm not first in line.

I am not the best.

No more entitlements.

Notice how there is a lot of "I" in these thoughts?

"I" as opposed to "us."

Human beings are unique, as far as we can tell, in that they can hold two opposing thoughts in their minds at the same time and believe both of them to be true.

I am special; therefore, mankind should serve me.

The rest of humanity was placed on this earth to maintain my position as leader.

If you are so superior, you should be serving mankind, ensuring its happiness, freedom, and justice.

Equality.

Thinking and saying you are the best is a good indication to the herd that you are not.

Our journey to brotherhood has only begun.

It received some good press, including a news announcement back in the 1950s.

Like a voice in the wilderness that echoes between the trees, 'I am a Man' pricked up the ears of those asleep.

Far too many fell asleep after those voices of freedom were taken away from the world's consciousness.

Too many thought the fight was over.

The battle with inhumanity was over.

It was only a round of a fight that has no end.

Fear.

Fear is a terrible thing.

It will make people do terrible things.

Fear will make people deny the truth.

That's why it's such a potent weapon for those who profit from fear.

Realize those who profit from fear it's their only source of income.

They know not of any other trade than fear.

Fear.

Let us trade our fear for compassion.

Let us trade our fear for what love demands of us all.

More.

Love wants us to understand there are no boundaries to its reach.

Love is the future.

Fear no more, my sister, my brother.

We are right by your side together, facing the future together.

Drop hate be hope.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

How To Recognize You Are The Problem

Originally titled, "How To Recognize You're The AS*$#@!

As an empath, I perceive, sense, and feel more deeply than a typical person.

This is not a miracle; it is not a superpower; it is not psychic.

Take a child with a sensitive personality, mix in a mentally and physically abusive parent, and what pops out of the psychological personality Easy-Bake-Oven 99.0% is a sociopath.

1.0% of the time, you get a male empath.

I see dead people.

I see their lies.

Everyone.

No matter how big or how small, I can tell in an instant you are lying.

What I can't tell you is your reason why.

You're motivation.

Before I was diagnosed at the age of 55 as being an empath with no boundaries, I believed that I was the cause of the hate in the world.

Everyone hated me so much that they lied to me about everything.

I never asked people why they were lying.

I assumed it was something with me.

People couldn't and wouldn't tell me the truth.

I found out it wasn't me.

I learned this really late in life.

It is a world ruled by hate and cruelty, kept in place by a vast ocean of indifference.

I discovered that I could immediately recognize who the problem was.

Not just the apparent tyrant.

But the indifferent, self-righteous, I got mine, you go get yours, entitled, unaware, no questions asked bigot.

Bigot, in this case, means - a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people based on their membership in a particular perceived group.

The following is a list, not comprehensive, of both significant and supportive problems I have found in the society of The Walking Dead...

You don't hold the door open for a stranger?

You don't send cards?

You don't come to a complete stop at a traffic sign?

You don't share the sidewalk?

You don't sing?

You laugh at racist jokes?

You steal?

You don't call your loved ones?

You own a gun?

You don't say thank you?

You don't vote?

You don't tip.

Everyone agrees with you?

You stop across the crosswalk?

Everyone says you're charming?

You make those around you cry?

You ignore current events?

You hit your child?

You have a vanity plate?

You give the finger?

You don't ask questions?

You assume everyone agrees with you.

You belong to a club?

You are physically violent?

You lie.

You kill.

You destroy.

You don't care.

Worrying about the world is for others.

You mind your own business?

You don't know what the problem is?

You don't ask.

If you recognize any of these problems as being you, then surprise, you have begun the process of no longer being the problem.

Well... maybe.

Recognizing that a problem exists is the first hurdle to actually taking steps to address its source.

You have to have a conscience still inside of you.

Hope.

The best thing is hope.

There is always redemption.

A chance to make what was wrong right.

There is a chance you can stop being the asshole.

That is our purpose in a real-life awakening.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Empathy What Is It Good For?

I see things normal people don't.

I feel things normal people don't.

I hear things normal people don't.

Because of what I see, feel, and hear, it drove me to end my life.

The world was too much for me. 

I couldn't take the daily abuse after living in a world a life of hate for 55 years.

Casual cruelty bolstered with a good dose of hypocrisy.

My daily diet.

Everyone around me talks a good game but never follows through with what love requires of all of us.

I had mistakenly, it turned out, convinced myself there was no more love.

No more love in the world.

No more love for me.

My life had dried up.

I was a loser.

No career.

No job.

No money.

No friends.

No dreams.

Everything I pursued failed.

By every measure of our Western society, I'm a washout.

I couldn't understand why people were so uncaringly cruel.

Cruel to each other.

Cruel to the people I love.

Cruel to me.

Stop! Stop! Stop!

A little voice told me to stop.

Don't leave yet.

That little voice of a friend asked me to give love one more chance.

I had no more trust left in me.

I no longer knew what was right or wrong.

I didn't care anymore.

So I listened.

And listened.

I learned that I wasn't entirely wrong.

The world doesn't understand love like I do.

It doesn't.

At 55, I was diagnosed as an INFJ empath.

I was correct in being depressed with the world around me.

As Dylan sings, how many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?

I had heard that song since it was first released.

Nobody was listening.

Nobody.

I pleaded with the sky…

You can't hear people cry.

You can't hear me.

What is normal?

What is normal.

Empaths are not normal.

I'm not normal.

I know now why I'm not normal now.

I see, feel, and hear things the average person doesn't.

Just like a dog who can see, hear, and smell things people can't.

You have to ask yourself...

Follow me...

Do dogs live a better life than you or not?

The dog can hear that tear that falls in the silence of your room.

The dog can see the lonely person sitting awake all night in the darkness.

The dog can smell the fear of life and death you breathe.

Dogs and empaths are alike that way.

I'm here to tell you it's not a good thing to feel the pain of everyone around you.

Empathy: What Is It Good For?

I have since learned to build filters, barriers, and boundaries over the past six years.

Boundaries that keep most of the flood of emotions from other people from drowning me.

I listened to that small voice tell me I needed to be what I was born to be.

No longer in pain, but to be free and let the world know it can do better.

To be on guard.

To sound a warning.

Now, while the world sleeps.

While the dark side of humanity works to take love out of the world.

I'm the dog in the yard.

Outside tied up…

I see that shadow at your door...

I'm the dog barking in the night.

Wake up!

Wake up!

There's danger at your door.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Beginnings

Life begins when you realize you are not the only person who needs love.

Children believe they are the center of the world.

Nothing can tell them differently.

Their wishes, their demands, and their worldview place them at the center.

Nothing exists beyond the realm of the child’s mind.

They do not understand the importance of a reasonable bedtime.

They can’t subsist on cookies.

Every want, every whim must be fulfilled ASAP.

The adult, the caretaker, is there to fulfill their prejudiced view of how the world works.

Me... me... me...

Only life experience will have a chance to break through their cosmic certainty.

It will happen when...

The first time, they feel hungry, and there’s no food that night.

The first time they see their caretaker cry.

The first time a wish goes unanswered.

Slowly…

Slowly…

Given enough time, this child will grow up and hear other voices besides their own.

The voice of despair.

The voice of fear.

Even, even the voice of hope.

The voice of love.

Every human who has ever lived or shall live goes through this cycle.

But not all come out the other side genuinely alive.

Awake.

Childhood is a type of shell.

A prison.

A shell that keeps the mind safe from reality.

Too soon.

Experience like a hammer raps raps raps on that shell, asking each of us to come out and play.

Join the party.

Not everyone can break the shell of childhood.

Forever caught in their own head, they can’t hear other people cry.

They refuse to hear the call for justice.

For freedom.

For hope.

For equality.

They know they are safe in their shell.

For love which reaches its never-ending arms around all.

Society, like a forest, is filled with life.

Some are sprouting, some are growing, some have lived a lifetime, and winter has come.

While others are still in the ground, in their shell, waiting for that drop of human kindness, that drop of reality, to break their shell and let them grow.

To begin.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

True Believers

Racism is a religious movement.

Racism has no room for compromise.

This is why we stand and fight this enemy of humanity.

Purity is the product of minds that believe there can only be one solution to a problem.

I was raised by racists.

My extended family, growing up, were racists.

Family friends were all racists.

They ranged from the card-carrying openly hostile bigot to the meek and mild "Go along to get along" varieties.

I am well versed in the lore, the beliefs, and the practice of racists.

What they say openly to each other and what they say in private at the birthday party.

At the picnic.

At the seasonal Christmas gathering.

Racism is a religion.

It is born of religion.

Inherent in every religion, our focus, the three Western religions, is the foundation of the believer versus those who do not believe.

It is there in black and white, transcribed for all to see.

When told, many of us want to deny what's written in the holy texts of the three religions that claim Jerusalem as their holy city.

It's challenging to introduce facts to those who only need to believe and discount facts.

The fact that Jesus was a Jew.

His parents were Jews.

His followers were Jews.

The initial religious groups, fanboy clubs that formed after the death of Jesus, were two Jewish cults, factions, that understood the teachings of Jesus in two different, fundamentalist views.

They both fought each other in a "true believer's" Thunder Dome.

I'm on the right side of Jesus.

I'm on the left side of Jesus.

Two cults entered, and only one emerged.

Both cults of Jesus, these two Jewish cults, had their origins in an inherited belief that the world and humanity's relationship with the only God was an absolute worldview.

One God, one faith in opposition to a pantheon of deities and cultural traditions.

At the time and place of the fighting between these two Jesus Jewish cults for supremacy, the Eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea was packed with religions that all believed in a pantheon of Gods.

The Jews broke with the millennia of tradition.

There can only be one God.

There can only be one People.

The Jews are chosen by God as his people.

Everyone else needs to fill out a form in triplicate.

In a twist of historical irony, White Europeans, upon first hearing of the Jewish cult story of Jesus, believed they were the chosen people of the new Christian God.

Somehow, someplace ironically, they didn't comprehend that the Jewish book of faith they 'retconned' was about the journey of the Jewish people's faith.

The Jewish cult of Jesus was based on the historical beliefs and prophecy that the oppressors of the Jews would be destroyed and the Jewish people would become kings of the earth.

Jesus was the prophesied answer, the Son of God, who blew the whistle, starting the countdown to the end of the world.

The early Christians and to this day present-day Christians maintain that the chosen people of God are people of the White race.

God has to be white because that's how he's painted on the ceiling of the Vatican, right?

To tamper with the ordained order of the universe is to put yourself ahead of God almighty.

You have to be a Communist to believe that all people are equal.

Equality = Communism

There is no room for compromise.

So it is written, so it is so.

These believers in White supremacy cannot, in good faith with the Jewish God they stole, allow for any deviation from who God favors as the best race on the planet.

Racists can't allow Whites to be second-class citizens.

Again, in a crazy piece of human irony, the White racist has pitted their population minority world against the population demographic of the whole world.

I still can't understand how a minority population, White racists, convinced themselves that they are superior to the rest of the world?

At best, Caucasians in population only represent 15% of the world's population versus all the other races.

The White race is not a majority.

However, the White racists still tell themselves every day that they are the majority.

Listen to them.

This is why we, the majority who stand for justice, who stand for freedom, who stand for what is right, are in a battle with this enemy of humanity.

Consider...

Racists are like rocks in the stream of life.

They will not move.

They will not change.

Only the flow of life will eventually wear them away to sand.

We cannot and should not allow a group of people who do not want to join life to dictate how our lives should be.

Birds don't wait for someone to allow them to fly.

We can't wait for racists to allow us to be free.

There can be no negotiation with evil.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Change Happens

Standing in the doorway of the schoolhouse.

Putting up a fence between countries.

Between neighbors.

Going to war.

Stopping people from voting.

From living free of violence.

As soon as you stop progress and implement conservative ideals, you actually put into motion a cascade for change.

The conservative mind has never grasped this fact.

For every action, there is a reaction.

Stopping change will have the exact opposite of the initial intent.

No part of this universe doesn't operate around the physical reality of change.

Everything is cooling down.

Eventually, everything in our universe will reach the temperature of absolute zero.

Minus 273 degrees Celsius, or for those who resist change, minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit.

It's the temperature at which atoms no longer vibrate.

The temperature of the universe when it is absolutely dead inside.

Human beings have the unique ability to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time.

I love my mother, but I hate what she does.

I love eating ice cream; I'm lactose intolerant.

Human beings can appear alive and active, yet inside they are dead.

Their hearts, their minds have reached absolute zero.

They no longer move.

They stay where their God has intended.

Their God can be ancient in its adherence to resist change or new.

The old Gods of prejudice, racism, elitism, religion, and nationalism all preach and inoculate their believers to the ideal of not changing.

Keeping the social order dictated and carved in stone by their founding fathers.

Given the benefit of the doubt, the White man is on top of the pyramid and deserves a free lunch while everyone else below him pays cash.

The human irony.

There is real irony here.

The reality is that those who stand in the public space and declare there will be no more change forever… 

They have fired the first shot, the starting pistol, that will bring about the change they so desperately want to prevent.

Like a dam in a river, the water behind the blockage begins to build.

Through age and poor construction, the dam, no matter how large, how thick, how deep, cannot withstand the pressure of change that builds behind it.

You can't stop the merry-go-round of life.

Life will find a way.

Life will pour over that dam standing in the doorway of progress.

And what is this progress that change in our society is pushing for?

John Lennon said it… 

Imagine no heaven, no countries, nothing to kill or die for, no religion, no possessions, no greed, no hunger, no hell.

Just earth below and sky above.

A brotherhood of man where we all live in peace, sharing the world and this universe together.

As one people in tune with the true nature of life.

Change happens.

I know I'm not the only one who knows this.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Pant Load

Are you walking about with a pantload on?

And don't know it?

As an empath, I speak from direct observation of our society.

Are you like the average three-year-old walking about with a loaded diaper?

Totally unaware?

Totally unaware of the stink left behind?

Like a child with a pantload who comes to the dinner table, making everyone gag.

I liken being an empath to being able to see germs.

I see germs.

I see the germs when you're self-absorbed.

I see the germs when you disregard safety.

I see the germs when you neglect to care for others.

I see the germs when you don't care about yourself.

Our society wading in the wave pool with a pantload on.

They are unaware of the wake of suffering, of pain left behind them.

As Joseph Campbell observed, all of Western Society has lost touch with those rituals that tell a person they are no longer a child; they are now an adult.

Children only think about themselves and don't give a shit about anyone else.

Children don't think about the pantload they have on.

Adults do.

Adults can smell the problem and take action.

They clean it up.

Adults take responsibility for themselves as well as their community.

The person who blocks the sidewalk, the person who runs you down in the crosswalk, the person who gives you the finger, the person who doesn't pay taxes, the person who doesn't vote, the person who lies to gain power, the person who kneels on your neck all have a pant load on.

They suffer from not having empathy.

They suffer from not even having sympathy.

No one told them they needed to wipe their ass.

Showed them how to wash their hands after wiping their ass.

How to share and be a part of society.

The world.

Life.

Told them about love and charity.

Especially love.

Like children left to raise themselves, they have no concept they are the problem in our world.

They have no touchstone of what it means to be an adult.

They're bopping from one self-centered interest to the next.

They're making it up as they go.

Those of us that can see and smell have an obligation.

Our privilege is to tell society to wash up.

Wipe your behind, grab a bar of soap and a towel, and get to scrubbing.

Be a teacher, not a preacher.

Demonstrate what an adult is not.

Get clean.

Drop hate.

Then, join us at the dinner table, where love is the meal, and hope is the dessert.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

What Is Myth?

Myth is a corruption of truth.

Simply, I use the term 'myth' to describe lies that we believe, which give us comfort from reality.

Need it put more plainly?

A myth is a fairy tale we believe is true.

With the added complexity that our fairytale is true and everyone else's fairytale is a lie.

Myth is a large umbrella that shelters many a human belief.

Under the umbrella of myth, you will find, yes, all the religions of the world.

Both past and present.

But you will also find under that shelter of self-delusion prejudice.

You will find racism, entitlement, apartheid, segregation, urban legend, intellectualism, science deniers, liberals, conservatives, family, and friends all seeking shelter under the umbrella of myth.

You will even find yourself.

The umbrella of myth is a human invention.

It was not given to us mystically.

We created it for a specific reason.

Fear.

Fear of the unknown.

Myth gives us a reason why bad things happen.

Myth gives us control over things we can't control.

Myth tries to remove the random nature of the universe.

Our greatest fear is death.

Consequently, the greatest stories we ever made up to tell ourselves are those stories about life after death.

Those stories give us comfort from the inevitable termination of our existence.

If we believe in them, we get a coupon to "live after we die for free."

It's obvious why we created such stories.

Fear is the motivation behind all myths.

An example is the fear of the stranger, which motivates racism.

The endless storytelling occurs worldwide and in our homes, businesses, and places of worship.

Those people are not like us; they don't believe like we do, we're better.

There is a common theme underlying all the fear that shelters under the umbrella of myth.

That common theme is self.

Selfishness.

I am good, everyone else is bad, I deserve everything I want, and I don't care who I harm to get what belongs to me.

Selfishness.

Selfishness shelters under the belief that it is good to sacrifice the lives and well-being of the other to keep intact the myth.

At all costs.

The sacrifice of family, friends, happiness, but most of all truth, truth is the first and most important thing to destroy to maintain our personal delusions.

Fear will always be with us.

There is only one power in this universe that can overcome it.

Love.

Love lifts the chokehold of fear so we can see the world as it is and not through our personal expectations.

Love will allow you to see the need in the world, hear the cry for peace, and feel the urgency of now.

Love will let you understand we only get one chance at life.

That's why every life is essential.

Love makes clear that today is the day we do right, not after we're dead.

Love is the only power that can drive back the night terrors of fear and allows us to live together as we should, not as we imagine.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Denial

I'm not fat.

Did I do that?

I don't have to pay taxes.

It's not my problem.

Those people are why I don't have a job.

I have good genes; I can't get cancer.

The weather will get better.

I'm a winner.

Nobody is looking.

My husband has a second job, that's why he works late.

She's just in a mood.

Rehab will help.

That charity does good.

My pastor would never lie.

Covid is a hoax to take away my freedom.

Truth makes everyone who can hear it uncomfortable.

Too many of us prefer to be comfortably numb.

So many issues plague us daily. 

From personal to national, it is understandable why some of us want to shut it all out.

There is a wolf at the door.

Unlike the big bad wolf, this creature will be with us all for the rest of Time.

Denial.

The creature I'm referring to is denial.

Denial is the effect.

The cause of denial is the willful ignorance of fact.

No democracy, no nation, no people, no community can peacefully exist when ignorance is put into a place of honor.

The burden of a healthy society is to care for the sick.

The sick include not only those with failing physical health but also those with failing ethical health.

Our brothers and sisters suffer from anxiety of uncertainty.

They fail to consider their responsibility for their suffering.

They fail to consider that their health, happiness, and freedom are born out of securing those rights for others and themselves.

We rise together.

We fly together.

We reach together.

We overcome together.

Walk away from the dark comfort of denial into the bright community of truth.

It's your choice.

If you can see it.

Denial.

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J Frey

Why I'm Not Grateful

Is the ocean grateful that the river runs into it?

Is the sky grateful for another cloud?

Is a lion grateful for the hunt?

Are you grateful to be able to vote?

What does it mean to be grateful?

To be grateful implies something was given to us.

Something that was not expected.

Something that we could not achieve on our own.

Something that goes beyond our expectations.

Is the bird grateful it can fly?

No.

It flies because it can.

It is expected.

It doesn’t owe anyone or anything for its rightful ability to take flight.

It’s what it does.

As humans, we should expect to be fed and have shelter, safety, justice, freedom, and love.

These rights of life are not given.

These rights are part of the expectation of life.

Freedom is an inalienable right.

We are all born free.

Our rights as humans.

To be grateful implies these rights are given to us.

By who?

Show them to us!

This is the argument stated in the Declaration of Independence of why our founding fathers were not “grateful” to the King of England.

Since the foundations of civilization, men have corruptly manipulated the weak.

The most insidious is the evil that men do to the minds of the innocent.

The most hateful is the idea that we should be grateful to them.

Grateful that we are allowed to exist.

To whom?

To White racist men in the White racist world, in White racist pulpits, in White racist places of power.

They want us all to be grateful to them forever.

They want us to owe them for allowing us to exist.

They want us to be on credit until they say we are paid up.

They want us to be grateful that they allow us to have our sustenance, shelter, safety, justice, freedom, and even our love.

Who we love.

There is no end to this mortgage of suffering.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful for the air I breathe.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful I’m allowed justice.

I get fired up when I’m asked to be grateful I’m allowed to live.

If you want me to be grateful, give me something I don’t have on my own.

Give me an equal opportunity to work.

Give me a chance.

Give me financial credit.

Give me the freedom of the vote.

Give me respect.

See me.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Original Fear

Children have a fear of the dark.

It is a rational fear to the child because they are still children.

The fear is born out of the belief that the world will change when the child closes their eyes.

A world that changes cannot be predicted.

Not being able to predict the future is an innate, fundamental fear response.

This fear is genuine for all of humanity.

To survive in a hostile environment, regularity and predictability allow for a relaxation of awareness.

Allows rest.

Allows sleep.

Removes fear.

That is why the parent puts on a little light in the child’s room.

This little light illuminates the room and the environment.

The child can peek out from their shut eyes and see the room is still the same.

Sameness allows rest.

Sameness allows sleep.

Removes fear.

That little bit of light of truth allows the child a space of comfort in a hostile world.

We, as the carriers of light, it is our privilege to hold up that little light of truth.

We hold that light of truth up in a hostile world.

That light seen by the fearful gives them comfort.

Gives rest.

Gives peace.

Removes fear.

Sweet dreams.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The Deep

What do you see?

What do you know?

What do you believe?

The surface of the ocean tells you nothing about what takes place below.

When you live on the surface, the tides are out of your control.

The waters below hide things moving there.

The sun burns to the horizon.

The gulls gossip with each other.

Above the seas, life there has no contact with what moves below.

Deep water.

To those who live deep under the surface, what takes place up top has nothing to do with their reality.

No matter how much the winds of change may blow up top, the people of the deep are not moved.

They are insulated from the critique of weather.

Life below is steady.

Predictable.

Below the seas, life there has no contact with what moves the above.

What do you see?

What do you know?

What do you believe?

The people on both sides have chained themselves to an ideology that says they are special.

They are the chosen.

They will rule over their enemies in life and after death.

They are in love with their conflict.

It fills them with purpose.

It feeds their prejudice.

And they are hungry.

How do you find a compromise between two opposing people who believe the total destruction of their opposition is required so they may live?

The thousands of children on both sides that have died have not moved them.

The destruction of their community on both sides has not moved them.

The thousands upon thousands who have died on both sides are ignored.

Only the point of contact between the two sides of the conflict has ever been addressed.

The window dressings, the easily understood issues, the things that can be whined about without touching the sea monster at the bottom of the ocean or the dragon circling in the sky.

What aspect of this conflict remains unaddressed?

What is it in the deep waters and in the sky that brings fear to the peacemakers?

Something so profound that, if talked about, would shake the foundations of society?

That which shall not be named.

God.

Religion and its structure are at the core of the conflict.

Either one is right, the other is wrong, or both sides are wrong.

And there's the rub.

The three religions of the West all claim the same spot on earth as theirs and theirs alone.

There has never been any room for compromise within these three groups.

King of the hill or ruler of nothing.

Like blind fish and birds, the faithful follow the voices of hate they were born into.

There can be no compromise with those who oppose us as rulers of humanity.

It's written in the holy books of all three faiths.

The problem is now defined, so what do we do?

We send a message of hope.

We let the people of the deep know that life is possible on the land.

We tell the people of the land that life is possible in the deep.

It's a different life than what they have known, but it is life.

We must ask them as many times as needed to understand we share this world with them.

The people on the land and the people of the deep can live together.

There can be peace only if those who live in the deep want it as much as those on the land.

Otherwise, the oceans will roll, and the sky will thunder.

The storm will continue.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Permanent Record

Guilt.

Guilt is a powerful force in human society.

Guilt will build cathedrals.

Guilt will jump from a bridge.

Guilt keeps the innocent under control by the guilty.

This guilt is not because the person, the society, has committed a crime.

It's not for killing, or stealing, or destroying.

This guilt is used by those who wield it as a hamstring.

A way to stop progress of the emotional and intellectual development of a society and the individual.

It began long ago.

When the gods had to be appeased.

When the gods had to be paid off or, they would get angry and do bad things to you.

A formula was given to mankind by the Gods through the priests.

You can't want a thing for yourself unless you give up something of equal or greater value.

Simply, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

You can have a birthday, but you can't enjoy it.

You can have a career, but you must sacrifice your love life.

You can have the pleasures of earth but give up the pleasures of heaven.

Hogwash.

Bullshit.

We must peel back the layers of guilt to find the origin of the species of guilt.

This kind of guilt was created by the ruling class, the aristocrats, kings, and queens.

Guilt kept them in power.

FYI...

The aristocracy of Europe believes themselves to be the children of Jesus.

They are in his family tree.

Direct genetic inheritance.

They are the physical embodiment of God on earth.

There are not many other positions in our society where change is more of a threat to their existence than to the aristocracy.

You can count on that list the current Republican Party.

Change of awareness, of the removal of the blindfold of ignorance, becomes a direct threat to their power.

Guilt.

Guilt is the weapon of the powerful.

You don't want that because you're not good enough to appreciate it.

That dress won't look good on you; you're fat.

You can't handle the truth.

Your vote doesn't count.

You are not a man.

Not worthy.

Guilt is the slow bleed in the side of hope.

The truth that destroys guilt is that there is no outside bookkeeper.

There is no one keeping track of your guilt.

Only you can measure your guilt.

There is nothing wrong or evil about wanting a better life.

You can have a good job and a living wage.

You can vote for a government that serves all the people.

You can have love and happiness too.

There is no permanent record.

No file keeper is checking off if you sacrificed sufficiently to get your heart's desire.

Have you suffered, bled enough, or died enough to get a better wage.

Who keeps guilt alive?

Who keeps pouring it out?

People whisper dark thoughts into innocent minds, making them hate themselves.

People who enjoy pushing people into the mud so that they can walk on their backs with self-righteous, clean minds.

Break the cycle of guilt by keeping your eyes on the truth.

Truth is a fire, a light against the darkness of ignorance.

It will lead in unsuspected directions.

Truth sets the innocent and the guilty free.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The GOP Today

What controls the modern Republican Party today is hate born of fear.

The hate is directed at anything, anyone, who represents change.

This child called hate is not responsible for its own birth.

This hate is not an immaculate conception.

This hate was born of parents called fear and ignorance.

Fear is the name of the mother of the child of hate.

Fear of the other.

Fear of the stranger.

Fear of sharing.

Fear of truth.

Ignorance is the name of the father of the child of hate.

Ignorance of empathy.

Ignorance of justice.

Ignorance of freedom.

Ignorance of truth

Together, fear and ignorance met long ago in the human story.

Fear, ignorance, and their child hate have been why we don't have nice things in our American society.

Universal health care, a living wage, high-speed rail, paid sick and vacation days, child care, clean food and water.

Fear, ignorance, and their child hate have been the roadblock, the hurdle, the moat, the barbed wire, the wall that has kept society from reaching the promised land.

They have been the crab in the barrel of life that keeps pulling those back who want to escape the cycle of violence.

Fear and ignorance didn't produce just one child.

Every generation, another abandoned sibling of hate is added to the orphanage.

This generation's child of hate finds its refuge in social media.

There, it feeds upon the prejudice with relish and abandon.

Before today, the children of hate had to gather in secret, in the woods, with hoods.

Hide who they were.

Now, they take pictures of themselves as they desecrate the House of the People.

Fear finds refuge in the pulpit.

Every Sunday in America, it is taught that God ordained the White man to be on top of the social economic pyramid.

Every Sunday in America, fear is given shelter when it's declared that the mixing of the races is an abomination in God's eyes.

The White race must stay pure and faithful to God's word.

Every Sunday in America, fear sees the browning of America and the world as the end times.

The time when their savior Jesus will return and kill all the enemies of the White man and make him ruler of the earth forever.

Whites are the chosen people.

Fear finds companionship with those who hate other religions.

The babysitters of fear, like Putin and Trump, use the fear of the Islamic religion to incite violence.

These fearmongers, people who sell fear, create a problem so they can declare themselves the only ones who can fix the problem they created.

The children of hate.

It's what unites the Republican Party, this fear both politically and financially.

The fear that White people and their God will be replaced by brown people and their brown God.

This understanding of the world based on fear is reinforced every time they tune into the news.

The child of fear knows it's right when it sees Black Lives Matter marches.

The child of fear knows it's right when it can't make jokes about a person's race anymore.

The child of fear knows it's right when they can't get a job at a living wage.

Those people took my job.

This fear knows they are doomed if their White savior is not re-elected President.

Is there a way to stop the hate from multiplying?

No.

No, there isn't.

That's the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear.

The child of hate is not the source of the problem.

The source of the problem that threatens to destroy American democracy is fear and ignorance.

The parents of the children of hate need to attend a family planning session.

Their fear needs to be listened to.

Fear needs compassion.

Fear needs to feel safe.

Ignorance is the harder of the two parents of fear to help.

Ignorance will deny they need help.

Ignorance cannot be told what to do or that it's wrong.

If you do, it will lash out and destroy anyone or anything that comes to tell it the truth.

Ignorance can only learn through example and consequence.

Love, compassion, and sharing have to be lived and demonstrated as a path to happiness.

Ignorance needs a step-by-step guide on how to achieve happiness.

Through living a life of love, ignorance will eventually catch on; there is a better way than nihilism and destruction.

It is up to every generation to pick up the torch of freedom and carry on the fight.

Drop hate be love.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Immune

Walking by a local restaurant, I see people enjoying their immunity. 

Apparently, they are immune not only to the COVID-19 virus.

Our brothers and sisters are immune to society.

Immune to community.

Immune to compassion.

Immune to brotherhood.

Immune to love.

How did these people get their vaccine?

The answer is 'Blowing In The Wind', written by Bob Dylan.

He asked, how many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

How many years can some people exist before they are allowed to be free?

How many times can a man turn his head and pretend he just doesn't see?

The answer is that hate is reborn generation after generation.

By people, humans who believe they are doing good work.

Mothers and fathers.

Brothers and sisters.

Churches, schools, governments, police.

All keep the story of hate alive.

The Great White Myth.

I'm telling you here and now if you don't know this in your heart of hearts already.

This is a cold fact of life on this planet.

People have been making up stories to keep them from seeing reality since before recorded time.

Even before there were written languages, people told each other myths about the world.

They have told themselves these stories so many times that these tales are deeply ingrained in human psychology.

In The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell, "Myth is much more important and true than history."

Human's capacity to believe in their own myth is limitless.

They will believe in ghosts.

In Leprechauns.

In Golden Gods.

Their team will win a sports championship.

The 2nd Amendment can't be amended.

Tom Hanks eats babies.

White people are ordained by God to rule the earth.

Humans believe their own bullshit.

The only balance to myth is truth.

Yet truth is harsh, and myth is smooth.

Truth sticks in our throats.

Myth goes down like candy.

Truth goes against our expectations, and myth feeds our prejudices.

Some of us are lucky to be born able to see the beauty of the world.

While others have turned down that privilege and have focused their sight inward.

People who only help themselves are selfish.

They don't want to know about the cannonballs flying.

They don't want to see the man beaten down in the street.

They don't want to hear people cry.

Just as hate is seeded every generation, so too must love be grown in every generation.

Any gardener can tell you it's a continuous battle against the weeds.

We have to tend the garden of truth to keep out the weeds that would choke it out.

If you have hands, lift; if you have ears, listen; if you have a voice, speak up.

If you have a mind, love.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Labor Costs

American businesses have been living in a fantasy world where labor and material costs are negligible…

The root of the fantasy, the belief, comes from the story of slavery.

The belief in the value of one person.

Business has always fought for a discount.

Slavery eliminated the long-term cost of labor.

Slavery maximized profit.

Profit is the God of business.

What does it profit a man to own the whole world and lose their soul?

Ask the average billionaire if they ruined anyone getting to where they are now.

It's all easy money when you don't believe souls exist.

The world over has been manipulated, coerced, beaten, killed, cajoled, bribed, and marketed to believe what's right for business is good for the people.

Unfortunately, for the sake of the welfare of the People, they have bought what the business has sold.

Slavery teaches that some people have more value than others.

Those at the top of the pyramid, the leaders, have more value than those who support them in their positions.

The needs of the few, the one, outweigh the needs of the many.

Without me, you wouldn't survive.

This sentiment echoes down the hallways of tyranny generation after generation.

This economic slavery has dominated mankind's history.

Capitalism, the pursuit of wealth unregulated, has been at war with the People economically, socially, and morally since the beginning of time.

What has every war been about?

Who has power over wealth creation.

The Punic Wars, The Crusades, the French and American Revolutionary Wars, the American Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Drug War, the Immigration Crisis, civil rights, women's rights movements are all about who pays the cost of production.

Or who doesn't have to pay.

Or better…

Who profits.

In America today, the Republican Party has purposefully transformed itself from a conservative, unregulated capitalist business party to a white nationalist fascist party.

They've seen the future, and they don't like the idea of the old business model.

They are done sharing the profits.

They believe in the business model that their white, blonde, blue-eyed God has sanctioned as how to make America great again.

The rebirth of a White America only to dominate the world.

They tell each other this online on social media, at work, at play, and from their pulpits.

They are no longer comfortable with sharing the profit.

They are fighting and willing to burn the American ideal of freedom to the ground.

Who dares constrain the rulers of the earth?

They foment violence, they kick a shit pile, so they can point to the problem of their own creation, telling us they are the only ones to solve it.

Freedom for all means freedom for all.

Suppose we are to turn the corner on this fight for economic and personal freedom in this nation.

In that case, it's up to all of us to make Americans deal with reality.

The fantasy has to stop.

We can no longer indulge the morally bankrupt that there are no costs to labor.

To justice.

Freedom isn't free.

Put the coffee on, walk around the room, stretch, and rub the sleep of indifference out of your eyes.

A new day is upon us all right quick.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Help Not Wanted

Start with the British Red Coats.

They believed they were the good guys.

The Confederate States believed they were the good guys.

The German and Japanese fascists believed they were the good guys.

The Red Revolution in China believed they were the good guys.

The Klan believes they are the good guys.

Today, the Proud Boys, Boogaloo, Q believe they are the good guys.

The Republican Party believes they are the good guys.

Every one of these groups, organizations, and clubs has a sign in their window.

That sign says, help not wanted.

What does that mean?

To want help, you first must come to realize you need help.

You get a flat tire, there's no spare, and you call AAA to get help.

The storm blows the roof off of your house.

You call your insurance because you need that roof repaired.

You have a toothache.

Do you knock it out of your head like Tom Hanks in the film Castaway?

No, you go to a dentist because they have the knowledge on how to help you.

Help not wanted.

Most of us can recognize when we need physical help.

We have a broken bone, a cut, an illness.

However, a significant portion of Americans remain unaware of the need for moral guidance.

They can't see the fairy tales of the 'white hood' have become ingrained in their culture.

They can't feel the emotional temperature rise around them as selfish, tyrannical voices shout allegiance to their great leader.

They can't hear people cry as they deny them the right to exist.

They don't need any help because their god is on their side.

They know power makes right.

They are defending their race.

They are defending their belief.

This is why they can't be helped.

Help not wanted.

The only way to change the course of a river is through real effort.

To redirect to control floodwaters, civil engineering takes decades of continuous effort.

To have a civil society takes decades of continuous effort.

You can't just brush your teeth once and think you're done.

The waters of strife, of dissonance, of anger and hate will always be with us.

The rain will fall on a sunny day.

But we are not predestined to drown in a flood of hate.

We have the ability to control the political climate.

We can build dams of justice so everyone feels safe.

We can build bridges of compassion so everyone feels love.

We can bring the ideal of the big tent to life, making it a welcoming space for everyone.

Not just hope it will happen.

But remember, our help is not wanted.

Many of our brothers and sisters are comfortable like ducks in the rain.

We who live in the sun just have to keep on getting on.

The lost will come to dry off of their own free will.

When they are ready.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Feed The Spirit

Did you feed the cat today?

Did you watch your program?

Did you catch the news?

Did you find that last collectible?

Did you read your book?

Did you water your plants?

Did you meet your friends?

Did you do anything?

What you feed grows.

Did you run in the park?

Did you walk to the corner?

Did you yell at the people you love?

You hate?

Did you give?

Did you take?

What you feed grows.

What didn't you do today?

You didn't listen to your neighbor.

You didn't talk to the lonely old person.

You didn't give.

You took.

You didn't share.

What you feed grows.

Our lives all run in cycles.

There is a time to learn, to fail, to gain.

A time to be born, a time to die.

And yet, in between it all, there is a time to live.

And living means growing.

Rocks don't grow.

Rocks lie there and let the workings of time wear them away until they are no more.

Our spirits are a living thing in each and every one of us.

Each of us is born with a seed of life buried deep in our consciousness.

Through our actions and our actions alone, we are responsible for caring for this precious gift.

We are ultimately responsible for how we respond internally to the world and its inflictions.

It's up to each of us to care for our spirit.

Do you have a green thumb, or are you a deadbeat parent to your spirit?

What you feed grows.

The human spirit is unconquerable.

The human spirit can only wither from within.

If we lower our expectations.

If we stop caring.

If we stop learning.

If we turn from hope.

If we stop listening to truth.

If we only see ourselves in the world.

Consider this…

If you believe you can't see the light, you're just turned in the wrong direction.

What you feed grows.

Turn your eyes upwards, and your life will follow.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby