Freedom When

When you grow up, you let go of your past.

A past where you believed in fairy tales.

Our Republic is growing up.

You and I have felt the growing pains.

This pain is the conscious awakening of letting go of a mythical past.

There have been enough cracks put into the story of this nation that the light of truth is shining upon the interior, the heart of what we define ourselves as a nation.

There are a lot of holes in the stories we tell each other.

Our foundations were built upon the god-given belief that slavery was a right and just part of society.

The belief that some men were more valuable than others.

White men believed themselves superior to all other races.

What this nation fought for was not the freedom of all men versus freedom for only white men.

The tyranny that was overthrown on September 3, 1783, allowed the white man in this newly formed country to breathe in the freedom denied him by millennia of aristocratic sovereignty.

The Revolutionary War ended white male bonded servitude.

Well, truthfully, sort of, instead of calling it white slavery, they called it bonded servitude.

Sharecropping.

There was no regard, no thought given to women, let alone brown and black people in the original Bill of Rights of the Constitution.

It would take hearts, hands, and minds struggling to get those rights for all from our oppressors.

Today, in 2020, women of all colors are still waiting for that same freedom to be won for them.

Cracks in the story.

Who put those cracks into the American story so that we can see we are not who we say we are?

Every person who swung the hammer of justice is who.

People have been hammering on the thick heads and dense hearts of this society for a while now.

Recently, COVID-19 rang the bell of justice, asking us all to take care of each other.

Only half the nation responded.

But it shined a bright light, demonstrating that half of all Americans don't care what happens to our sick, the old, the unemployed, and the poor.

Recently, the tyranny of man reached out and claimed another soul, George Floyd.

That knocked another hole in the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a people.

Who does the police really protect and serve?

Who does the police serve?

Every day, little holes are chipped through the shell by every person on social media.

The story.

The story we told ourselves in the past was better than the reality.

That's what stories are.

Our problem as a society is whether we are writing and believing in a story of fiction or non-fiction?

Every society that has been recorded goes through an evolution.

It grows.

This society has very high ideals.

A high bar is set for itself in that original story called the Declaration of Independence.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights.

But as of late, there haven't been enough writers for a better future.

The dreamer's ink has run dry.

Too many prefer to sit back and dream about the past.

Too many prefer to fight against the future and worship the past.

Too many prefer to shut out change, build walls, and kill to keep equality just a dream.

Those preferences are the desires of the foolish.

They destroy the future so they don't have to worry about it.

Those preferences.

What rights are enjoyed by the majority cannot be denied to the minority.

An idea that keeps getting in the way of determinism.

We are the dreamers.

We are the heroes.

We are the hope.

We can make a better world today, not tomorrow.

Today.

Now.

Even now, we are writing a new story, you and I.

Let's revise our story, shall we?

Let the end of the past be the beginning of the future.

A future where all children are welcome in the story of freedom.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Drop Hate

When I became an adult, I put away childish things.

When I was blind, I could not see the suffering.

When I was deaf, I could not hear the cries for freedom.

When I could not walk, I rolled in my own intellectual filth.

When I was mute, I did not speak up for the oppressed.

When my heart was cold, I could not feel.

I could not feel.

Age does not create wisdom.

The original idea is that with age, you gain experience and learn from mistakes.

Humanity teaches us again and again our willingness to commit the same mistakes over and over and over again.

This time, we'll get what we want.

Age does not create wisdom.

Humanity is like a forest.

In a forest, you have life growing at many different rates.

Some fast.

Some slow.

Some don't give a shit and are stunted.

Life progresses to maturity on a broad scale.

Some seeds fall into the earth too early.

The late winter snow kills off the blossoms.

Some fall too late.

The waning sun, the cold earth, the seeds never burst through the ground.

They lay dead, never to see the sky.

We who walk through the forest only see those that were successful.

We don't think about the tens of thousands of seeds that had potential but were wasted.

A seed.

A seed in the forest.

I became an adult.

I stepped out of the shell of my seed and created a life beyond self.

I opened my eyes and saw that the war between the states had not ended.

I opened my ears and heard the same cry for peace down the darkened streets of this nation.

I stood on my legs and joined the march in the street.

I found my voice and spoke truth to power.

My heart beat in my chest, and I could feel.

My mind was opened.

I heard a voice call my name.

It said to put away the hate.

Put away my pride.

Put away my will.

Put away the stories given to me by damaged people whose stories were given to them by damaged people.

Put away an evil past and make right a glorious today.

Love asks more, never less, of each of us every day.

If we are adults, then it is time to put away our toys in a proper place.

The adults need to find the courage to say no to their children.

No more.

Every society has had an awakening.

It is not unusual for a people, a nation, to realize that their past was a mistake.

To promote, honor, or defend a mistake in the light of truth is an evil act against life.

To roll in lies, to bathe in hate, to inflict pain with words, acts, or symbolically with statues is tyranny.

The tyranny of man against man.

It must stop.

End the Civil War.

Put away the evil past.

Embrace the power of love.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

What You See?

Look over there.  

What you see?  

A woman is walking a dog.  

There is a Starbucks cup on the tree lawn.  

It’s cloudy today.  

Look over there.  

What you see?  

A young black woman is playing with a Hispanic child.  

There’s a delivery at the door.  

A cop grins because he killed some guy.  

Look over there.  

What you see?  

Congress deaf, dumb, and blind.  

Senate deaf, dumb, and blind.  

President mocks humanity. 

Look over there.  

What you see.  

I see fear held so long that it has burned out compassion. 

I see hate so deep that there’s no turning back.  

I see change coming.

Change coming.

A child yells.  

A mother weeps.  

A daddy lost.  

A dream destroyed.  

Look over there.  

What you see?  

Through tears, I see truth setting minds free.  

Through tears, I see justice push back.  

Through tears, I see our hope is here.  

See it?  

It’s right in front of you.  

It’s you.  

You will remake the world.

You.  

You are our hope.  

What you see?  

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Heart Of Darkness

Where does discrimination come from?

Why do we allow people to suffer?

What is the belief that allows us to kill?

When was the last time you admitted you were wrong?

Where was the last place you cried?

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

What will people say about you behind your back?

When will racism end?

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

bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that 

the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood 

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

The other day, a man woke up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only a few superficial people ever believe they are important.

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

Well, almost none of us.

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

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

George Floyd was murdered by the police.

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

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

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

I can't breathe!

I can't breathe!

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

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

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

Dr. King was right.

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

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

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

The truth is that racism will never end.

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

We have a lot of old rules in this Republic.

Rules meant to keep one People in power.

Rules written can be unwritten by better ideas.

People in the street march towards that brotherhood of man.

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

Heroes are not created; they happen.

Let freedom ring in the morning's holy light.

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

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The Dark Waters Roll

This is a moral check-up…

How are you doing?

How is the nation doing?

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

Not too long ago, we believed our nation had a moral awakening…

A generation was asked to stop discrimination and segregation and realize that everyone is created equal.

We didn't know what we were asking…

We were pushing for an answer we didn't want.

By asking the question, its aim was to address a long-standing cancer of the American experiment.

For every action, there is a reaction.

Humanity doesn't respond instantly to change.

The reaction came decades later, at the end of segregation and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The reaction?

Recently, we elected an immoral President.

He broke the dam, and all the dark waters that our nation had hidden from consciousness since 1964 have flooded back into everyone's lives.

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

This first monster of our own creation was unleashed once again.

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

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

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

Dead.

Dead and buried and good riddance.

Communists!

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

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

Everyone can be bought.

You just have to find what they want.

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

Yet our courage to stand for justice has run away and hidden behind indifference to truth for political gain. 

This President was not removed.

The dark waters roll…

The dark waters roll...

A plague is unleashed.

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

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

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

As it makes its way across America, we become them.

Them.

Prejudice feeds upon lies that support its belief.

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

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

Can it?

The bodies pile up.

The dark waters roll…

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

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

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

The third monster is unleashed.

The original sin.

The hole in the heart of the Great American Experiment.

Racism.

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

Like so many heroes, he was at the wrong place at the right time.

His life was stolen from him.

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

They lit the watchfires of our democracy.

From hill to hill.

From the valley to the plain.

From the mountaintop to the ocean, the call went out that our democracy was in danger.

No person's life is in vain.

No one.

George Floyd made a difference in the world.

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

The dark waters roll…

The flood has not abated.

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

I want to give you hope.

For the first time, there are enough of us to row this lifeboat to that blessed shore.

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

We can row this boat ashore.

Our captain is justice.

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

We can all bring justice once and for all.

For all.

We will answer that question posed over 200 years ago.

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

Listen…

Look...

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

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Us Became Them

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

Today, in America, it is not a problem.

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

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

Them.

They

Those.

Why is that?

America sees everything through Race.

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

Left and right.

Rich and poor.

Male and female.

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

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

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

Minorities in white America are everyone who is not white.

All others need not apply.

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

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

An easy excuse to do nothing to help and protect.

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

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

COVID provided a way to decrease those on welfare.

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

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

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

Or so white racist America believes…

Or so white racist America believes…

Prejudice feeds upon stories that support it.

You, as an individual, may like donuts.

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

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

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

The virus has a story it will tell.

COVID-19 is not the flu; it is not a cold.

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

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

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

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

That is the foreword of the COVID-19 story.

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

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

All those faces that can no longer tell their story.

Their hopes.

Their dreams.

Gone.

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

This is the carelessness of not valuing one human life.

Humanity has never been able to learn on its own.

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

Humanity remains clueless.

The story of America is a racial one.

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

Trust one another?

Care for one another?

Learn to love one another?

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

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

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

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

A Time Not Seen

The day you were born.

Your first steps.

The moment when you saw the sky.

A time not seen.

The War of Independence.

The war between the states.

The war for human rights.

A time not seen.

Before smartphones.

Before telephone poles.

Before the telegraph wire.

A time not seen.

The edge of the universe.

The edge of our solar system.

The edge of despair in the human heart.

A time not seen.

Like a toddler new to the world, America is about to take a step into the future.

It would appear reason and ignorance are evenly balanced.

The balance point is the virus.

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

This country has seen death before.

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

It laughs at a few hundred thousand.

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

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

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

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

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

They don't want to go alone.

They're not going without taking us with them.

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

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

What makes America worse at handling this global crisis?

Racism.

Both ethnic and economic.

A time is rapidly approaching that has not been seen.

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

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

Other nations have.

Other nations came out on the other side.

Different.

Matured.

They came to understand the value of one human life.

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

This nation is falling and does not recognize its descent.

Let us change the trajectory.

Let us challenge the fear.

Let us make this a time not seen.

A time where compassion is our guide.

A time when hope is the arm that comforts us.

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

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

Do something now.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Fear

Where does fear come from?  

Children are afraid of the dark.  

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

But is fear a thing? 

Is it something that can be touched?  

Is it a monster under the bed?  

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

Or is it something inside of us?  

Is it something we tell ourselves?  

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

There are, of course, many things to fear.  

Spiders.  

Paper cuts.  

Snakes.  

Auto accidents.  

Plane flight.  

Job loss. 

Illness. 

Death.  

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

They are real fears.

But is that what fear is really?  

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

The COVID virus.  

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

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

Our deaths are not its purpose.  

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

To pass on its legacy.

Its genes. 

It wants cooperation so it can live.  

Fear. 

Our plans changed.  

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

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

A mask.

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

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

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

They are whistling past the graveyard.

Who is the conductor of the tune?  

The Devil made me do it.  

The virus needs no help to kill.  

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

Fear is a mask.  

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

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

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

How many people will have perished?  

North of 1.5 million Americans.  

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

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

That is a real fear.  

Yet fear can stimulate courage.  

Fear can grow purpose.  

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

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

Love will see all of us through this time.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace.  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The Takers

You and I are considered the takers by conservative America.

If you are on welfare.

If you are on food stamps.

If you get a Social Security check.

If you are on Medicare.

If you are on Medicaid.

If you are on Obamacare.

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

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

If your housing is subsidized by the state or the feds.

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

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

If you complain.

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

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

If you vote for a Democrat.

If you believe in equal rights.

If you get a pension.

If you are living in an extended care facility.

If you are a migrant.

If you are black.

If you are brown.

If you are an Asian.

If you need childcare.

If you need an abortion.

If you want equal pay for equal work.

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

If you believe in freedom of speech.

If you believe in a free press.

If you want the freedom to be safe.

If you demand police accountability.

If you believe in sharing.

You are a taker.

You are a taker.

You are a taker.

Isn't that strange?

Humans come in two varieties.

Those who share and those who can't.

Conservatives conserve; they don't believe in sharing.

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

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

Share and share alike.

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

We all share in carrying the load.

The load is the burden of everyday life.

That's why communities formed.

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

We share the load.

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

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

I need help.

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

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

So we have to be an example of community.

Let them see a beautiful community come together.

A place where we practice the common good.

A place where we practice freedom from fear.

A place where we practice giving.

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

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Politics

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

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

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

Those who hate people.

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

In past centuries, they were called anarchists.

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

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

Building means profit.

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

To throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Acceptable casualties. 

It's what gave us the First World War.

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

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

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

Why bother.

Why work for a better world?

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

The nihilist doesn't like people.

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

Fascism arose to counteract the rise of Trade Unions.

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

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

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

They organized for a rematch.

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

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

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

We can give you power.

We can restore your homeland.

Your homeland...

We can make America great again.

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

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

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

They found a movement in fiscal conservatism.

The Tea Party.

Neo-Conservatism.

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

They hate people.

They didn't want "change."

Who was responsible for forcing the silent majority to change?

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

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

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

Then something strange happened quite recently…

Life.

A virus.

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

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

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

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

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

Those who don't believe in government trimming. 

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

Our bodies our choice?

Our bodies our choice!

Kind of ironic...

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

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

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

Our bodies our choice!

Our bodies our choice!

Burn the barn to save the cows? 

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

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Angels

I have seen them on the Earth.

As an orderly for five years.

As the son of an RN, Elaine Frey.

As the husband of RN Denny Frey, she cares for her patients in the ICU.

I have seen angels on the Earth.

I have seen nurses wipe the bloody wounds clean.

Watched as they laughed about a daytime TV show.

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

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

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

I felt cared for when I was sick, told to take my medicine, and forced to drink fluids.

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

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

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

The Doctors ate them.

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

Was there as they filled out the patients' chart?

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

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

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

Was there when it was their last day.

Angels.

They were there when they retired.

There when they put their feet up.

The hands of a nurse are a contradiction.

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

They are rough and cracked from years of constant washing.

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

Love never asks for less.

Love asks all of us to do more than expected.

Angels do more than expected.

The crisis of a generation is upon us all.

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

There are angels there to catch us should we stumble.

Catch us as we fall.

Angels who bring the light of hope.

Thank you.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Value

We stand for the value of one human life.

The movie is Judgement at Nuremberg.

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

Specifically, the Jewish Holocaust.

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

For the purpose of the idea of racial purity.

For the purpose of hate.

Racism = Genocide.

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

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

Let them die; they are on their last legs.

2 to 3% is an acceptable loss.

The cure can't be worse than the disease.

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

We stand for the value of one human life.

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

A cancer we do not want to address.

Hate.

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

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

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

Yet hate is part of the human soul.

Hate and love are two sides of our existence.

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

We conjure the monster ourselves.

We are responsible for hate.

Hate is our child just as much as love is.

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

This virus has shed a bright light on the cracks in our society.

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

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

The poor are dying in higher numbers.

The old are dying in higher numbers.

Black and brown people are dying at higher numbers.

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

BANG!

We hit the ground.

Who is to blame?

Everyone.

What can we do about it?

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

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

But then you have to walk the walk.

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

We will want a universal, guaranteed income.

We will want universal paid sick leave.

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

Who is my brother? 

Who is my sister?

We stand for the value of one human life.

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Time

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

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

The "what" is the virus. 

The shark in the water.  

The game of Russian Roulette.  

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

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

The plans.  

Spring.  

Planning our summer vacations.  

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

Holidays.  

Now, all is put on hold.  

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

Who has been changed?  

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

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

The Doctor is reusing their PPE.  

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

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

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

This crisis.  

This space.  

This time.  

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

Or want it to…  

When change comes, we have two choices.  

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

Or…  

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

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

The second way leads to making the world better.

Better...worse...better...worse?  

This crisis has exposed the rot in our world.  

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

We need a better healthcare system that serves all.  

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

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

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

We need to care.  

Our nation requires care.  

Its people need care.  

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

Stay home, save lives.  

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

No more waiting till the last minute.  

You are the hope the world is waiting for.  

Peace.  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

The Elephant in the Room

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

People are dying because they believe in the conservative idea of the individual free from interference from the State.

People are dying because of their conservative faith.

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

The argument is as old as the country: States' rights versus federal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Their words.

They could restore the proper order of the world.

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

They have preached the ideal of the independent man.

The rugged individual.

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

The self-made man.

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

It's sociopathic.

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

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

Either our way or the highway.

Kill them all, and let God sort them out.

Their words.

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

There is a viral tiger in our streets.

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

Blatant profiteering is taking place by friends of this President.

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

Those who work together will survive.

Those who cooperate will thrive.

Those who share will prosper.

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

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

Mortality is the great equalizer.

There is nothing sadder than a life lived alone.

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

Peace.

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

A Quiet

When dreams are lost to reality.  

When day becomes night.  

When anger transforms into action. 

A quiet comes down.  

As the reality of this virus impinges on our lives.  

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

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

A quiet comes down.  

A quiet comes down.  

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

The warmth of hot coffee.  

The warmth of friends' laughter.  

The warmth of love passed.  

Love present.  

A quiet comes down.

A quiet comes down.  

Days turn into starry nights.  

Days turn into loud, defiant voices.  

Days turn into the face of the moon.  

Tomorrow comes.  

A quiet comes down.  

Together we can find a quiet place.  

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

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

We call love…  

When I am scared and alone.  

And the world has turned cold and gray.  

I think of the beautiful faces of my friends.  

I am not alone anymore.  

A quiet comes down.

A quiet comes down.  

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where We Stand

Right and wrong.

Right and left.

Right and doing nothing.

Right, and being alone.

Right is right.

What are the consequences of doing right?

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

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

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

We don't have to lift a finger.

We don't have to have any anxiety.

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

The silent majority.

We can be left alone.

A truth.

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

Why?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They made their own worst fears come true.

They did nothing.

Doing what's right makes people angry.

Why?

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

Their nihilism.

Their unwillingness to put out the fire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is right and what is wrong.

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

Anarchy would rule.

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

But let's bring it down to everyday living?

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

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

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

You can see that your congressional district is gerrymandered.

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

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

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

They may be easy for you, difficult for others.

Doing the right thing will always bring about consequences.

For every action, there is a reaction.

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

Separated from the crowd.

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

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

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

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

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

Given lip service by most.

The darkness of the world is borne by a few.

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

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

Our good works will be buried with us.

However…

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

Standing against the wicked.

Standing against the corrupt.

A warrior for the light.

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

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

We are bound together.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Who is at the Door?

Fear is at the door. 

We can choose to ignore it.  

We can choose to confront it.  

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

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

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

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

This is not the end of the world.  

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

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

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

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

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

It is about living. 

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

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

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

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

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

We will live through this.  

We will learn.  

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

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

Love is the only power that can conquer hate.  

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

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Open

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

Consider the current economic state of the average American.  

It sucks.  

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

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

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

This creates fear.  

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

They will discriminate against their neighbor.  

They will arm themselves against the stranger.  

They will blame all their woes on the immigrants.  

They will believe in the person who supports their fears.  

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

Their fear is real.  

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

The fearful are used by the wolves.  

Both good wolves and dire wolves.  

Wolves who promise everything you want can be free.  

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

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

Who should they believe?

Who should they believe...  

They should believe in themselves.  

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

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

They must open their eyes.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An economy for all.  

Happiness for all.  

Love for all.  

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

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

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

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

Open hearts can hear people cry.

Open hearts can't ignore real problems.  

Hearts are funny things.  

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

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

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

Who can you believe?  

Who can you trust? 

Who will deliver the goods?  

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

They will vote.  

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

Afraid of change.  

But a change will happen one way or another.  

The universe just works that way.  

Life equals change.  

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

Why pursue the common good?

So that more people can be happy? 

More people can prosper.  

That is what the living pushes for.  

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

But funny thing…  

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

Those who don't believe in hope for all.  

Can't keep good people down for long.  

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

If you believe in keeping your hands in your pockets.  

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

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

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

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

Join us.  

Make the world better today.  

Peace  

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where Are We?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the traditional models are out the window.

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

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

Death marches to self-imposed irrelevance.

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

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

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

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

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

No legislation.

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

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

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

He’s crooked as the day is long.

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

The paradigm of American stagnation.

But the current occupant couldn’t deliver either.

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

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

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

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

The Democrats are desperate for ideological political purity.

Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada have demonstrated that.

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

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

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

Finally?

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

Is the impossible, socially and economically, now possible?

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

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

Polls are for suckers.

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

What won’t lie to us is numbers.

Numbers who vote.

Numbers who march.

Those who speak up.

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

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

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby

Where Are The Hero's

The boy stands on the corner of the street.

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

At his feet lies his father.

Voices converge all around him.

Is he drunk?

Are you lost?

Who is that old man?

Look at that piece of shit.

The boy can't cry out.

His mind caught by jagged thoughts.

Thoughts that back him into a choking, dark corner.

As time comes to a stop…

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

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

Who are the strong?

Where is compassion?

The heart knows what the mind cannot conceive.

The hero does what is needed.

A 911 call to our future...

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

Not born of radiation.

Not created by Gods.

Not given birth by a miracle of DNA manipulation.

We all know what the right thing to do is.

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

Our collective refusal to accept that everything changes.

Nothing has ever in the entire universe stayed the same.

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

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

The list is as endless as living itself.

We can make the promise of heaven here and now.

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

"Do Right Now."

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby