Friends

Who is my friend?

The proof is through what they do and what they don't do.

The person who doesn't want justice for me.

The person who can't hear me when I cry.

The person who doesn't understand peace.

The person who is entitled.

The person who lets me starve.

The person who is okay with me living in fear.

The person who hits me.

The person who doesn't care if I live.

The person who doesn't see me because of my color, my gender, my ethnicity, my race, or my personal belief.

They are not my friend.

Who is my friend?

The person who speaks up against injustice.

The person who comforts me in my despair.

The person who doesn't make 'Drama' in my life.

The person who lets me go through a door first.

The person who shares their lunch with me.

The person who checks in with me to see if I'm okay.

The person who hugs me without asking.

The person whose life would be dimmer without me.

The person who celebrates my life, who I am, who doesn't need to change me.

They are my friend.

To be a friend is both the most tremendous responsibility as well as the simplest.

True friends may not see each other for decades, but when they come together, it's as if no time has passed.

This bond, this relationship, is the outward manifestation of an inward purpose.

That purpose dramatizes our actions and inactions with each other.

That purpose is the true meaning of love.

True love and true friendship don't mean no boundaries.

True love and true friendship mean that we consider each life, each person, an individual worthy of respect, consideration, life, and love.

Friendship ends when respect for boundaries is crossed.

Yet friendship is ever-growing and will continually change.

Friendship leaves open the door for redemption even up to the last second of life.

Friendship is symbolized by the open hand.

Is your hand open?

Open to those around you?

To the stranger?

To yourself?

Who are your friends?

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Indifference

Race haters believe they are the majority when they are not.

Who are the majority of people in the world?

It is the Indifferent.

The indifferent do not react the world over unless they are individually annoyed.

They will sit on their hands.

They will bind their feet.

They will blind their eyes.

They will tune out the noise.

They will box in their hearts.

They will shuffle their morality, which keeps them from any sense of responsibility.

Not until they are personally devastated will they take action.

Oddly enough, when annoyed, the Indifferent split almost down the middle on which side they will take up.

Vanilla versus chocolate.

Democrat versus Republican.

Just a tick less will become fascists as anti-fascists.

Indifference.

The Jewish genocide proved the power of the indifferent.

A nation, a world, the human race calmly sat by while millions of real people were put to death.

Their response was to do nothing.

Not in my backyard.

Until it was in their backyard, and their sons were killed at Pearl Harbor.

Not until then did we, as Americans, say we better put a stop to hate.

Indifference.

Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol how Father Christmas was warning Scrooge, the Indifferent, about Humanities' two children.

Want and Ignorance.

Want is the easier of his two children to care for.

Want needs, and once those needs are filled, hunger, shelter, comfort, free from fear; Want won't cause Humanity trouble.

Ignorance, however, will always be the root of evil.

Ignorance, both by accident and especially on purpose, is the cancer in the soul of humanity.

Ignorance will brush aside the milk of human kindness.

Ignorance only sees itself.

That is until they are personally annoyed as a consequence of its inaction.

To paraphrase MLK, he said he would rather deal with evil because you know where you stand.

Indifference will wait on time.

Putting off doing what's right.

Until time runs out.

That's the goal of indifference.

Doing nothing.

I'm also reminded of what that quiet voice keeps asking all of us.

Love reminds us that we all need to do more.

There are no alternatives.

There is no choice.

If you hear the voice of love, it asks us all to do.

To do right.

To do it now.

To do it without hesitation.

To stand, to clap, to raise our voice, and never be silent.

Silence is just as evil as hate.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Moral Bias

Do as I say, not as I do.

That's moral bias.

When individuals and groups hold another individual or group to a standard that they do not adhere to.

There have been many words created in our language identifying moral bias.

Hypocrite.

Liar.

Flim-flam man.

Carpet Bagger.

Charlatan.

Fraud.

Con artist.

Cheat.

Fake.

Imposter.

Pretender.

Phony.

Bullshitter.

These individuals and groups gain power and influence by exploiting the fears of others.

Society has been plagued by these people since before recorded history.

And obviously, fearmongers existed before the invention of the written word.

Sadly, there's no real way to stop them.

There's no law to pass.

There's no protest march.

No vote will matter.

There has only been one way to counteract liars.

The truth.

Only through the light of truth shown into darkness can a reasonable person make a judgment.

Just today, we learned of Speaker Pelosi's husband being assaulted in his home.

A TV personality incredulous wondered why the person who assaulted Paul Pelosi was in jail with attempted murder charges.

Wasn't it simple assault?

This TV person demonstrated clear moral bias.

If this TV person wanted to be truthful, they would not have conflated you or I being assaulted versus the Speaker of the House's husband being assaulted.

An assault on the Speaker's husband was an indirect assault on our government.

The perpetrator clearly was heard wanting to wait for Nancy to come home.

For what?

A coffee klatch?

The point is the moral bias that we are all assaulted with daily.

Where lying is moral in the pursuit of power.

Of ratings.

Of likes.

America has a cancer at the center of its soul.

And we all know what the cancer is called.

Racism.

Have you ever wondered why racists come down on people because their grass isn't cut?

Why do the people they hate drive an old car?

Why are they on welfare?

Why they don't wear their clothes right?

It's because of their moral bias.

Prejudice and bias will warp a lie into the truth.

That's what we're all up against.

Those who profit from telling the lie and those who feed upon the lie love each other.

The lie they love to consume is there are different races.

The truth is there is only one human race.

The only difference you will find between people is not in their DNA.

The only difference between people lies in their capacity to understand love.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Everybody

The depth of hate has no bottom.

The truth has a limit to what people can believe.

Everybody has fears.

Everybody has hopes.

Everybody has beliefs.

Our fears, hopes, and beliefs we seldom share.

We are mindful that sharing what we say to ourselves out loud is considered being soft.

Weak.

Unworthy.

Why?

Because we believe strength makes right?

Some of us do.

Not all.

Some of us see the person who does what they want, when they want, how they want as being a leader.

Damn the consequences.

Damn, the lives destroyed.

Damn, what's right.

They got it done.

Everybody wants a hero.

We want to be rescued.

We need someone to come and make it better.

But no existential hero is coming to save us.

The only superhero waiting to make a difference is we, the People.

Our fears can become so great that we're willing to listen and obey any voice.

The voice of hate.

Those who profit from our fear are aware of this.

That's why they whisper in our ears the things we want.

The devil is us, and we are it.

Everybody has a problem with the truth.

No one likes to find out they are wrong.

Nobody.

But being wrong is just as natural as being right.

The only thing about being wrong is if and when you find out you're wrong, you fail to do nothing to change it.

That's when you've consciously decided to turn away from life and become a servant of hate.

Everybody feels pain.

Everybody can heal.

Everybody can make their corner of the world a better place.

We just need to believe that only love can conquer hate.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

What Do You See

The woman who doesn’t go when the light turns green.

The man yelling at the sun.

The boy with the angry face.

The girl standing on the corner.

Who do you see?

The woman waiting to vote.

The man with the red hat.

The boy stealing a hoody.

The girl vaping.

Who do you see?

The woman with tears at the clinic.

The man wipes his eyes in the coffee shop.

The boy pushing past you.

The girl who cut herself.

Who do you see?

The drunk woman.

The man passed out, his nude ass exposed.

The boy asks why everything costs so much.

The girl spitting in your face.

Who do you see?

We see what we want to see.

All of us.

What we see and how far we can see is up to us and no one else.

Do we see only ourselves?

Or do we see the countless people of humanity, all with a story, all with a life, all with a purpose and a meaning?

A better world begins when we open our eyes and see.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Rocks

Am I talking to a rock?

It was once said that an individual had rocks for brains.

I propose a whole society can have rocks for brains.

Rocks are immutable.

Immutable means they don't change.

The only thing that can change a rock is time.

The rock is still a rock till the very end.

You can only wear it away, grain by grain, till you can't call it a rock anymore.

Humanity, since the beginning, has built entire societies upon a belief.

Rocks.

The Egyptians believed that if they hid an image of the current Pharaoh while they were alive, buried out in the desert, and it was not destroyed, they would live forever in paradise with the Gods.

Rocks.

The Romans believed that the wife of a citizen of Rome, a man, was his property.

Upon the man's death, his wife was to be put to death if she were still alive.

Rocks.

The Renaissance enlightened people still believed in witches and didn't know that a woman contributed to the formation of a child.

They believed, as many still do today, some 600 years later, that a woman is an Easy-Bake Oven.

The man places his dough inside the woman, forming into a being that is the man's property.

Rocks.

It wasn't until the American Civil War that we began washing our hands before conducting surgery.

Or eating a meal.

Or having sex.

Rocks.

It was legal to kill the native people of California well into the 1980s if you wanted their land.

Rocks.

This is all just the tip of the bullshit pile that people have invested their entire lives into.

Rocks.

Am I talking to a rock?

Rocks don't examine if they are wrong.

Rocks don't ask if what they are doing is right.

Rocks don't change because you ask them.

Rocks don't care about your suffering.

Rocks don't vote.

Rocks don't care.

Rocks don't listen.

Rocks aren't alive.

They are as solid as a stone.

Once you understand the fundamentals of rocks, you must tell yourself to stop trying.

Stop trying to make 'rocks' something they aren't.

You'll only crash and roar like waves upon the rocks, but the rocks will still be there.

Pay attention.

I'm talking to my liberal brothers and sisters now.

Rocks won't hear what I'm saying or understand...

There's been only one way in this world that has been found to change a rock.

You have to live a good life.

By living a good, happy, joyful life, you'll demonstrate to the rocks of this world that there is happiness.

There is life.

There is caring.

There is love.

One of those rocks will see and just maybe ask itself, "How come they are happy, and I'm not?"

Let the rocks be rocks and move on.

It's time we get on getting on and move forward to that better tomorrow.

Peace

Toby aka Daniel J Frey

Feeling Much

The world is hard.

Soft people get smacked up hard in this world.

I know because of being an empath.

For most of my life, I thought being an empath was something from science fiction.

I didn't read enough.

I've had this problem with this world as far back as I can remember.

It's not as far back as most.

The first twenty years of my life are gone because I physically died at age seventeen.

Died during an operation to restore my breathing.

I lost my memory.

I lost my family.

I had to relearn my past.

From imperfect narrators.

Most, if not all, of it I didn't like.

I have a soft heart.

When you're born soft, the world will gleefully stick you hard.

Cruel father, a mother on the cross of indifference, bullies.

Every question you have struck down, telling you you're retarded.

Stupid.

Striking you across the face till you bleed because you can't read.

Being cruel is not only a point but also a strategy for survival.

In a world of limited resources and an ever-changing environment, being cruel, selfish, and hateful allows you to survive.

Being soft-hearted in this world is a contradiction.

Independant.

Self-made.

The man living alone needs nothing and nobody.

The American ideal?

I was born soft.

I feel things others don't.

Like a dog tied up in the yard, I can hear danger approaching while my people sleep.

I can smell fear.

I can see self-made ignorance.

I know instantly when you're lying.

Soft people are here for a reason.

We have a duty.

A duty to warn.

A duty to care.

A child only cares about itself.

Adults care for both themselves and others.

We have lost those touchstones in our Western society that allow us to recognize when it's time to transition into adulthood.

To care.

To put the future's well-being and safety ahead of our self-interest.

Soft people are here to remind the children to put away their toys and take on the larger responsibilities of life.

Adults care for the children.

Children care only for themselves.

This world is hard.

Sometimes, I struggle to cope.

The cruelty, the despair, the uncaring, like one stone stacked on another, crush me.

Yet I rise.

I have a duty.

A duty to warn.

A duty to care.

Join me.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Bridges

When the road ahead meets a gap, we build a bridge to get to the other side.

That's what we do, don't we?

Humanity has never come up against a problem and said, 'Nope, can't do that.'

Yes, many will say, 'Let somebody else build the bridge.'

That's true enough.

But when there's a river to cross, everyone recognizes the need to build a bridge to get to the other side.

Ain't no mountain high enough.

Ain't no river wide enough.

Ain't no valley deep enough.

As the song goes, it keeps us from reaching our desired destination.

The gap.

Racism is a gap.

It's a mountain, a river, a valley keeping humanity from getting to where it wants to go.

Where does humanity want to go?

It aspires to a world where peace, justice, and love are the norm, not the exception.

Not something that takes every effort we have in our minds and bodies to keep and secure.

A place where peace, justice, and love needn't be fought for.

A reason why we are in this constant numbing struggle generation after generation is the gap called racism.

There have been efforts to build towards the promised land.

Generation after generation has sunk foundations, pillars of stone and steel, deep into the riverbank.

All in the effort to build that bridge.

To span that expanse.

But we keep coming up short.

The world is ruled by thirds.

It's a hard, fast rule that every problem and situation can be divided into thirds.

One-third want a solution, one-third don't care about a solution, and one-third fight any solution.

It has long been recognized by bridge builders that only one-third of the people actively help build bridges across humanity's divides.

In fact, two-thirds of the people are either actively fighting the building of bridges or are doing absolutely nothing.

The worst part is those that are doing nothing.

Letting others do what they won't do.

If we can get enough of the people who are sitting on their hands to join us, we can finish building that bridge.

How do we do it?

How do we do it?

Here's an honest answer…

I don't know.

I don't know.

People haven't listened to the words that Jesus said.

Have they?

They don't listen to Dr. King or Gandhi.

They don't respond to the voices of poverty, the tears of despair and loss.

They don't respond to the bombs of war, the bullets in our streets, our schools, our homes.

Old man racism.

That dark river out there called racism sure has a lot of people afraid.

I've been thinking, and you all can tell me I'm nuts.

We have to get up out of our seats and take as many as we can by the hand, by the heart, and lead them step by step to that brotherhood of man.

We must all actively engage with our brothers and sisters and bring as many as possible to the other side.

We also have to understand that we can't get everybody.

What we got they don't want.

Waiting on the rocks to grow wings isn't going to happen.

We can't wait for the perfect time.

Our time is too short.

Take your brother and sister by the hand and tell them we are not afraid.

We know the way across the river.

You don't have to be afraid, either.

Love is calling your name.

Hear it?

Just have to answer and cross that bridge.

It's for free and only costs you your fear.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Light In The Darkness

The universe is dark.

So is the human consciousness.

We all are born into darkness.

No guidebook is handed out for free to guide us on our stumbling journey.

In the dark, we reach out and touch people with good and not-so-good intentions.

They, too, are on their journey, believing in their guides.

But what is the end?

What is at the destination of those maps?

Is it the light of Truth or an abyss where there be monsters?

Light in the darkness.

All life springs from the dark.

Without the darkness, we would not be able to recognize the light.

Life in all its forms is a resistance to the darkness.

To never have lived means to never have grown.

To never have lived means never leaving the darkness.

To live means leaving the darkness behind where myth, legend, and lies whisper to our ego, telling us there is nothing outside.

Darkness tells us our ignorance of life is a virtue.

Darkness tells us nothing exists outside of what we believe to be true.

However, if you live only in darkness, in your own Truth, you are only living a half-life.

A half-life means you are crippled and ignorant of Truth.

You are not living a whole life.

A life where light and darkness reveal the Truth of the true meaning of life.

Light in the darkness.

There are so few lamp posts of Truth in the dark.

Many of the lights installed in the dark are there to trap and hold people, much like moths to a flame.

People put up these lights because of their need for power and to be praised by others.

They are not true lights.

To judge for yourself what is a true light, always remember this.

Truth doesn't need you to believe because it is the Truth.

Truth doesn't need your money.

Truth doesn't need your permission.

Truth doesn't need you to worship it.

Truth stands like a light in the darkness, piercing through the fog and sweeping back ignorance, shining as a beacon of freedom.

The voice of love speaks with the light of Truth.

Light in the darkness.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Fear

Where does it begin?

Fear of the dark.

Fear of the stranger.

Fear of the parent.

Fear of the barking dog.

Fear of the bright flashing light.

Fear of the bully.

Fear of being embarrassed.

Fear of being caught.

When does fear ripen?

Fear of peers.

Fear of sexual identity.

Fear of society.

Fear of judgment.

Fear of the future.

Fear of the unknown.

We are all at odds with fear our entire life.

We do many things to keep our attention from focusing on our fear.

Drugs, alcohol, sex, career, religion, politics, pets, eating, reading, music, walks, talking…

All human activity is a way of doing something, anything that will keep us from thinking about our fear.

Ultimately, what can all these fears be boiled down to?

Death.

As far as we can understand, we are the only life form on the planet that knows it will no longer exist one day.

That's real.

Everything we ever love will die.

That is why we run.

That is why we climb mountains.

That is why we run from sunrise to sunrise.

We run to keep ahead of the fear.

We create a whole pantheon of stories we tell about the past, the present, and the future.

These stories we tell ourselves keep us from accepting the reality of death.

What death really means.

This is the evil at the heart of humanity.

This fear.

This fear of death keeps us from doing what is right.

This fear of death keeps us from doing what is just.

This fear of death keeps us from loving each other.

Understanding that death is the ultimate act of living reveals the importance of life.

Every life, every life is essential.

Every life important.

Every life, including yours and mine, has meaning.

You will not pass through this universe in its current form ever again.

Understanding the value of life and the significance of an individual's existence requires us to do more.

We can not let people die and let God sort them out.

That's absurd piss on the world logic.

This life is all we are guaranteed.

This is it.

This is why we stand; we speak up, and we fight for what is right.

For justice.

For freedom.

For our human rights.

Fear is the slayer of truth.

Death is the end of all things.

Love gives birth to the truth.

I love you all; this is why I'm telling you the truth.

Drop hate be hope.

Live.

Stop dying.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Blame

Who is to blame?

Short answer…

We all are.

The act of blame serves three purposes.

The first is to target a thing or a person with a negative responsibility.

Blame.

Second, to generate guilt in a person or thing.

Blame.

Third, to deflect responsibility.

The blame game is as old as the human race.

Why are there no crops?

Who vandalized my sundial?

Why is the person I love dead?

Somebody did something; consequently, somebody must be to blame.

Blame.

Who is to blame?

I can't be to blame, am I?

When was the last time you heard anyone say they were at fault?

Occam's Razor suggests that no one you can personally remember has ever taken the blame.

It's easier to blame everything else but yourself.

Bandits, crooks, hucksters, flimflam men, liars, despots, dictators, and the sociopath next door and in your family all use 'blame' to stay in power.

Blame is used by governments, religions, social media, and charities worldwide.

Someone is to blame!

Blame them!

You're innocent.

Give me money, give me power, give me your soul.

Trust me.

You're not to blame.

Just an aside...

If anyone ever says, 'Trust me,' they are immediately untrustworthy.

That's a damn fact.

Trust is earned, not taken.

And that's at the core of blame.

Blame says that the other person is responsible.

You are ultimately taken off the hook; if someone else is to blame, you don't have to take any action.

For that kind of relief, allegiances are formed between those who blame others and those who believe they are not responsible.

Responsibility.

I'm here to say we are all responsible.

We are the weavers of darkness, hunger, poverty, injustice, and fear

There is no outside force, no invisible mythical entity darkening the world.

Its people.

Us.

Darkness.

Everything we love will die someday.

This is why it is so important to love one another while we can the best way that we can.

That is why we must stand for justice the best way that we can.

That is why we must feed the hungry.

Help those who are sick.

Be with those who grieve.

This is why we must drop the blame and take responsibility for our lives.

The harm we do.

It is our failure to do what is right when it is needed.

Doing nothing is not a virtue.

Doing nothing is the thread that stitches together the blindfold of fear.

I'm just one voice in a chorus.

I'm asking…

Drop hate be hope.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Boundaries

How far does your influence extend?

What are the boundaries of your control?

Do you even think about it?

Do you think about it a lot?

Do you road rage?

Do you hit your child?

Do you knock on doors and hand out fliers on political, religious, and social issues?

Do you yell at your neighbor's dog?

Do you not leave a penny?

Do you march?

Do you write your congressman?

Do you stay in your own backyard and ignore what's going on over the fence?

Boundaries.

We all have the potential to influence others.

Those people whom we know and don't know are also in their own bubbles.

Some of us are ballsy enough to romp over to our neighbor's yard and burst their bubble.

However, most of us are complacent and allow our neighbors to drown in theirs.

We assume their decline; their failure is all theirs.

We had no involvement in it.

Boundaries.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

There are groups of us who believe we can lead others to the well of our beliefs and make them drink the water we're pouring out of our mouths into theirs.

This is and has been a false narrative given to us by those individuals and societies that have subjugated us, the People.

In other words, you can't force people to believe as you do, regardless of your moral high ground or the low ground from which you stand.

If you do, you are a little dictator.

A nationalist.

A fascist.

A supremacist.

Believing that everyone is within your boundaries of control.

Your subjects to do with as you please because you are the king of the world.

Boundaries.

Boundaries.

There are boundaries we break, but there are also boundaries we don't break.

We allow poverty to murder our neighbor and their spirit.

We allow injustice to steal truth.

We allow racism to beat other people down.

We allow those who lack boundaries to make us cowards.

It is difficult to have boundaries when passions are inflamed.

However, there is a difference between seeing a person drowning and either ignoring them or throwing them a book on how to swim.

There is an answer to boundaries that is a compromise.

There is a boundary in between.

It's called love.

Love understands; love attempts to tell us that you can't always get what you want.

Do no harm; love asks of all of us.

Your boundary ends inside of your head; your influence ends there, also.

Your boundary ends at your fingertips.

Community.

We come together as a community, share ideas, and chart a course that best suits all of us.

Together.

Taking all reasonable ideas and beliefs into account.

In the history of the world, there has never been a single belief or a single person who has had all the correct answers to life's problems.

Nobody.

History, in fact, is littered with people and beliefs that lack proper boundary control.

Truth, justice, freedom, and love have always defeated them.

Put a spotlight on their poor boundary control.

Always.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Heavy Lift

Some of our brothers and sisters believe that the law is up for debate if it is not explicitly written in the U.S. Constitution.

It's even up for debate whether it applies to you and whether you will obey it.

This is why there is a job ahead of us all.

There is a heavy lift.

The Constitution has to be amended.

What does 'amended' mean?

It means that our society has grown more complex than when the Constitution was initially written.

In 1787, the Constitution was written by and for White Protestant male landowners.

Period.

That's a fact.

However, in their wisdom, the founders put in a contractual clause.

An exception, a clause, in case the minds and consciences of Americans changed in the future.

This clause stated that as the American Society evolves, it will be recognized that this document will be inadequate to meet the needs of future citizens.

The Constitution can be rewritten, amended, or repealed if a majority of States see the need.

Many of our conservative citizens believe that the Constitution is the same as their Christian Bible.

It is not.

Understand that the Constitution of the United States of America is a civil document that states the rights and protections of its citizens and outlines how they are to be governed by their elected officials.

It is not a religion.

It is not the holy book of any one religion.

It is not a book of poems.

It is not a belief.

It is not a fiction.

It is not.

Consequently, the irony is that too many of our conservative brothers and sisters believe that if it ain't written in the Constitution, that right doesn't exist.

These Constitutional absolutists are akin to the character George Costanza from Seinfeld.

When his boss fires him for having sex with his secretary, George laments, "If I had known, if it had been written down, I would never have done it."

This is the Conservative mindset: You have to have the law explicitly written down in one place, and in one place only —the Constitution.

If it's not explicitly written down, that law, that right, doesn't exist.

What about local laws?

Laws created by local governments, States, and at the Federal level are all up for debate.

They are covered in the conservative mind by the 'all-holy' States Rights clause, which is again believed to protect and exempt States from obeying Federal laws.

The Law.

Again, the debate is whether I will obey that law.

Suppose there is no sentence in the Constitution saying there is a right to privacy between a woman and her doctor. 

In that case, that right doesn't exist in their belief.

No amount of legislation will convince them.

No amount of protest.

It must be explicitly written in the sacred document ordained by Jesus Christ himself.

Yes, Conservatives believe that the Constitution was dictated by Jesus Christ to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Constitution…

Yes...

Yes...

Yes...

Jefferson "did not write" the Constitution; he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

People with a belief have no room for facts.

Fact.

Jefferson was not a Christian; he was a Diest.

A Deist is a person who believes in logic over mythology.

The mythology of Western Religion in which he was born into.

What do we have to do to make a change...

Our heavy lift, if we can get the resolve together to do so, is to convince people who believe in mythology to develop the ability to reason.

It won't be easy.

Nothing good ever is.

Some people have to be dragged into the light for their own good.

I can attest to this from personal experience.

Just like a Lifeguard… 

We who understand and believe in the greater good, for justice for all, are being called to come to the rescue of our brothers and sisters.

Our brothers and sisters are drowning under the weight of their myth.

A myth that keeps them spiritually oppressed.

A myth that overlooks their economic and social sacrifices.

A myth that forces them into servitude that cares nothing for their welfare.

A myth that keeps the power in the hands of the few, not the many.

This is the good fight.

This is the good work.

This is why you and I are here, in this place, at this moment.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

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