The Gipper painted a picture of~~~It's Morning In America~~~all over the American Psyche~~~when he began his presidency~~~way back when. But is the sun coming up~~~or~~~is it going down? Or may be it's just fixed up there in the sky? Morning In America is just an image you know. Nothing real. A way of spinning things that the glass is half full~~~and there is the hope~~~of new beginnings. JFK and Obama used the same tool. Nothing new here. Images don't change a thing. The sun is fixed in the sky. American Political Imagery? Empty words meant to control us. Our authority figures excel in expelling hot air~~~that creates the shifting mirages that arise above~~~the spiritually arid floor~~~of The Great American Spiritual Desert.
Perception changes everything. Seeing things as they actually are~~~or~~~as a web of illusion. If you look at America as a family~~~and all societies are extended families~~~how would you appraise her character? What if you were an American Indian living in the 1700's? Or an American Muslim these days? Or pick your own example. Families take care of their own~~~the sick ones, the old ones, the young ones, the crazy ones~~~those that need the help of others to get through this life. Dysfunctional families breed violence~~~and leave those that can't carry their own weight by the side of the road. Two ongoing wars, inner city gangster gun play, over ten thousand shooting deaths a year, and two million locked up in our prisons~~~and why is it that America is so violent? To others? And to it's self?
Life is impermanent. There is no security. All human beings have more in common~~~than differences. Our deepest experiences in this life are the common things that we all experience. Birth. Consciousness. Love. Sorrow. Suffering. Death. What we share in common are the deepest experiences~~~of all~~~our lives. So why do we leave our brother by the side of the road~~~when one day we will be in the same place?
Our Republic here in America is a beautiful thing for it sees the nature of power and divides it up~~~and democracy recognizes that we all are equal for no matter who you are~~~or think you are~~~it's one person~~~one vote. But Our American Empire? The last thing Eisenhower warned us about? The Military-Congressional-Industrial Complex? When I was young we dropped our napalm on Vietnam and now when I'm old we dropped our smart bombs on Iraq~~~and send out our drones remotely piloted over foreign lands by guys in Las Vegas. Our American Empire? What kind of family acts like this? The immortal hillbilly wars of The Hatfield's and The McCoys were probably a little more civil. Our American Empire~~~like all such power trips throughout history~~~is pure insanity. We're broke~~~and we still pay for all this military crap.
Our society is so far from any vestige of~~~Complete Acceptance and Unconditional Love of Life~~~that to be thrown into the American Marketplace~~~be it dealing in the commodities of manufactured things, personal services, esoteric thought, spirituality, or money itself~~~no matter what you accumulate or how much of it you gather~~~or~~~what you think you then become~~~it's death that lies at the end of everything. Impermanence is the way things are here on Earth. Security? We destroy That Which Is~~~the ecological balance of our planet~~~and our fellow man~~~for something that does not exist. This Life of Illusions can be a very twisted thing.
What kind of family are we Americans? What are our intrinsic values? Will our reverence for individual competition and our greedy accumulations destroy us? You know you have to give up part of your life to help another in need. So~~~having destroyed The Native American Indian Cultures and planted our flag on their shores~~~do you think our family ways can change? We Americans have immigrated here from all over this planet. We are from everywhere on the globe. Can't we identify with it all? Or are we prisoners of a false identity~~~Us Against Them? Or just Individual Egos living in a Pop Porn Cult of Personality~~~and a Culture of Fear?
The Gipper called tomato sauce a vegetable while little kids in America's Ghettos cried for they had nothing to eat. W turned the Military Industrial Complex lose on Iraq for no reason at all and killed kids standing in their front yard. The Republican Party cares not if the same kid gets health care~~~and tried to scare us with the 'pulling the plug on grandma' fiction. The American Corporate Oligarchy just gorged itself on The American Middle Class~~~laying waste to it's investments and shedding the jobs it hasn't sent overseas yet~~~leaving many families by the side of the road. No jobs. Corporate America was just getting rid of the dead wood on their balance sheets~~~improving their bottom line~~~after the latest economic fiasco. Just doing what they do~~~loving money more than people. What a family we are! It's a Culture of Fear created to control us~~~but don't be afraid~~~we're all going to die anyway. That's a fact. And what is it that saves a family? Even one so dysfunctional as ours? While we are alive? It is~~~That~~~Which Is Unconditional~~~and you won't find it in any marketplace.
Look at your own family. What is it that holds you together?
