G-Poppers … January 15th, 2016

 Jonathots Daily Blog

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Every now and then, one of the older sons asks G-Pop what he thinks about the present political fray.

G-Pop smiles to himself, wondering if Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Madison are giggling somewhere in their heavenly mansions (even though the quartet may not have actually believed in such a lofty destination.)

The truth is, our forefathers devised a system grounded in idealism and absent needful guidelines on implementation.

“All men are created equal.” A great idea–until you try to dole out the equality.

“A government of the people, by the people and for the people.” A moving notion–except for the fact that many of our founding patriarchs thought the electorate were ignorant and incapable of ruling themselves.

And of course, the precept of “liberty and justice for all.” How can you give liberty to everyone and still manifest justice? And isn’t the application of justice often the tempering of liberty?

Let’s look at some simple facts:

• Freedom without common sense is anarchy.
• Common sense minus freedom is tyranny.

It is only with the blending of freedom and common sense that “liberty and justice for all” is achieved.

So how do we balance it?

We don’t.

We have to go no further than the mind of God to see that freedom preempts justice.

For instance, the will of the Jewish San Hedrin–to crucify Jesus–supplanted the prevention of such a heinous act.

How about Abraham Lincoln? He decided to participate in a war with the South, because granting freedom to the slaves was cosmically essential.

So in choosing leaders, we must select those who honor freedom, and then gently and tenderly temper it with the common sense that brings justice.

Without this, we hamper the process of a democracy by introducing laws, restrictions and even morals that don’t necessarily fit all the participants.

Even in the case of raising children, inhibiting their freedom is a dangerous thing to do because it invites rebellion. Yet granting freedom with no respect for the history of humankind is an invitation to disaster.

So G-Pop feels that the best place for us to begin to grant freedom is to remove adjectives from in front of the word “people.”

There are not “black people, gay people or disabled people.” Just people.

There are not even women and men. Just people.

When we even the playing field to “people,” then we can address the common sense of what we all need.

We, the people. That’s what makes our system work.

Whenever we change it, segmenting ourselves into little groups, we start restricting freedom and destroy the process.

So G-Pop says to his son: “Vote for candidates who believe we’re all people on a journey together … to find common sense.”

 

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Populie: People Want to be Free … October 1, 2014

Jonathots Daily Blog

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Freedom is great. A very popular battle cry.

People want to be free. Hold on a second. We just stepped into a populie.

Even though entertainment, politics and religion love to tout the power of a struggle in which someone or some people who are oppressed gain independence from an oppressor, the truth of the matter is, most of the world is not free nor does it desire to be.

Even though since our inception, we evangelistically have preached the gospel of 1776 all over the world, we’ve had few takers.

Cuba, the Philippines, Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq have all felt a push from us to accept our form of government, only, in varying degrees, to opt for their own choice.

I think it’s important to understand what people do want:

1. People want to be free of responsibility.

It’s a garden-variety human error–and when I say “garden,” I mean Eden. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the devil. We’re just repelled by the notion of being held accountable for deeds.

Even though many countries do grumble about the King, the Parliament, the Magistrate or even the Dictator, the structure grants them a scapegoat between reality and their need to change.

2. People want to be rich.

I did not say that people want to work. People want to satisfy the passing whim, which in their minds means having obtuse amounts of cash to throw at the latest fancy. Even if the craving is just their daily bread, they would rather believe that they don’t have to bake it.

3. People want to be free of people.

We have come to the conclusion that the greatest interference in our lives is the competition from other human beings, which tends to split a pot, prohibiting us from becoming rich and independent.

So you can see, the American rendition pontificated by Jefferson by proclaiming, “all men are created equal,” immediately runs into a wall of resistance by those who are running from responsibility, seeking riches and always somewhat angry at their neighbors.

We must be honest, in 1861, we couldn’t get the North and South in America to agree that “people want to be free.”

So is there an answer?

First of all, let me say that I believe the true definition of imperialism is thinking that the joy, peace, contentment and direction you have found in your life can be transferred to other people by forcing them, or even by teaching them.

Frankly, I’m not so sure that we all evolved directly from the monkey–but we do like to ape the success we see, rather than having it legislated for us.

America will eventually have to let the countries of the  world find their own way instead of treating them like errant children who need to be punished.

I don’t mean to burst anyone’s balloon, but people don’t want to be free. So the best thing we can do to help our fellow-men is to:

A. Make things simpler

B. Make things more reasonable

C. And make sure our country, churches and entertainment are less judgmental.

 

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Finding a Message in a World aTwitter: Act III – Resolution… December 13, 2012

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I started my hunt.

I was looking for fellow-people who shared my message–and also for the possibility of some sort of divine order in the universe sympathetic to my cause.

• I spent a few minutes with Buddha. He offered me Nirvana, a state of nothingness, when I was yearning for abundant life.
• Moses had commandments, but was unclear about the payoff. He also insisted on being referred to as a “Chosen People.”
• Mohammed had too much of his father, Abraham, in him. What I mean is, he was more interested in building a great nation to encompass the world with his message than he was in making kinder people.
• Hindi had too many gods. Honestly, sometimes one is enough, if not too much.
• Philosophy seemed to focus on one point in a spectrum of potential–I guess, more or less to sell a book or create temporary controversy.

And then an amazing thing happened. I found a brook within a stream of humanity that seemed to grasp the concept that “NoOne is better than anyone else.”

“All men are created equal.”

“With malice toward none and charity toward all…”

“People  should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”

Jefferson, Lincolnand King–a plantation owner, a lawyer and a preacher. All three came to the same conclusion as mine. I was onto something. They shared only one thing in common–they had come to America to escape injustice. So this is why I am proud to be an American. At least in our field of activity, the seed of commonality has been sown, even though we permit weeds to prosper. I have brothers and I have sisters. My message has forefathers, contemporaries and even the promise of a future generation of proclaimers.

So then I searched for a God. Why, you may ask? Why not just relish the message? Because on dark nights, when our mission is being battered by critics, we need the fellowship of other human beings and the confirmation that somewhere in the heavens we are being supported.

I found Jesus. Although he is hampered by much religious fussiness and tied to too many failing causes, at the heart of his message is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Pretty close, huh? Almost “NoOne is better than anyone else.”

He also said that God is our Father. If that is true, it usually means that a father doesn’t have favorite children. Jesus gave me a God who doesn’t think that some of His seed is better than others. There you go.

So even though I would not call myself a conventional Christian, I am a follower of Jesus and a believer in my Father who art in heaven. When people try to get religious with me, I go back to my message. When people deny my message, I go to another village.

I will end my life that way–because I know if some people are better than other people, then most certainly, beyond a doubt, there is no God.

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It’s Time … February 19, 2012

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Sooner or later we all have to take responsibility for the fruit that is born through the philosophy we promote.

 

It’s time.

 

For instance, we can no longer claim to be the “greatest nation on earth”–a land of freedom–and fail to follow through with the symbols of greatness, which would include expansion for all of our people, caring for the needs of the weaker in our midst and offering vast opportunities for our citizenry who have chosen to excel and grow.

 

It’s time.

 

Watching a good bit of the funeral of Whitney Elizabeth Houston yesterday, I was struck by the makeshift wall constructed by her loved ones and the religious system, meticulously developing a storyline of Ms. Houston‘s life portraying her as a “prayer warrior,” a Bible enthusiast and a lover of God. Please allow me to be compliant to their wishes and concede that this dear woman did possess the by-products of the religious training which gave her rebirth. Here’s my question–why didn’t it do more than save her eternal soul? Why couldn’t it save her human life?

 

Why are we so insistent that God is concerned about only one part of us–our spirit–instead of all the parts of us, equally as created by Him? Because beyond any doubt, Whitney Houston was an emotional wreck, mentally confused and physically ravaged by a dousing in worldliness that easily cracked the protection of her spiritual upbringing.

 

Another case in point: why do we continue to insist on the right to bear arms, while further punctuating our point that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people,” and then do nothing to try to improve the quality of the clientele who wield the weapons? It’s fine with me if someone wants to own a gun as long as I know that their pursuit in life is to live in peace and joy with their fellow-man. Because the truth of the matter is, neither guns nor people kill–bullets do. And bullets come out of a gun when someone has lost the tolerance to continue debate and chooses to eliminate the competition.

 

It is time for us to take responsibility for the notion of a land of freedom and democracy which no longer leads the way in all the categories of human benefit.

 

I do not think we can argue the necessity of birth control for women while simultaneously lamenting the abortion of children. We have to decide which category we want to lead with during this season. Do we want to be a nation that lowers our abortion rate by granting women the power to time the birthing of a child, or do we want to lead the world in the number of abortions performed yearly?

 

It is time that we teach nations like Syria and Iran that our free-will process of electing a President, senators and congressmen is laced with the dignity of discussing the issues instead of pummeling the opponent with insults and accusations. Why would anyone in China want to imitate a system that is nearly as abusive to its proponents as communism?

 

It is time that we stop trying to rationalize archaic ideas that do not bring human satisfaction or fulfillment just because we already have the props, mechanism and gimmicks in place to maintain them. In two hours of flipping channels last night on TV, I decided to do a little count. In that 120-minute period, I eyeballed thirty-four guns and saw five smiles. (If you will forgive me, I did not count leers, sneers or jeers.) Honestly, my dear friends, in the course of one week, although I am a well-traveled man, I never see a gun in real life. Yet in two hours of television, I am led to believe that thirty-four guns become visible in a normal period of activity.

 

It is time for us to take responsibility for the message we share with the world. It is time for Christianity to shed the baggage of Old Testament doctrines that require an “eye for an eye and “a tooth for a tooth” and permit ourselves to be the country that insists that diplomacy and turning the other cheek not only are needed, but are the only way for progress to be achieved in diverse environments.

 

It is time that we embrace our sister, Whitney Houston, as the lost lamb of our failed religiosity and begin to question whether we could revamp our focus towards making more enlightened spiritual humans instead of rationalizing her behavior and willing her to be something that she really wasn’t.

 

It is time that a nation of greatness cease applying for the job of leader of the free world by Xeroxing the resumes of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln and ignoring the mediocre efforts of our present crop of leadership. It is not good enough to have once been good enough. It is not adequate to discuss adequacy. It is not intelligent to merely insist that you’re smart. It is not Godly to preach about God. It is not generous to recite past deeds of giving. It is not righteous to claim superiority. It is not American to be mediocre.

 

It’s time.

 

It’s time to accept a grade card on our philosophical approach. Receiving that evaluation, it’s time to go back and hit the books and improve our status where we are weak.

•  Religion fails us because it insists on pleasing a God who told us He was already pleased with us.
• Politics fails us because it struggles for power instead of carefully using power to ease the struggle.
• And we fail ourselves when we’re more frightened of revelation than we are of our own reality.

 It’s time.

 

It’s time to understand that greatness is achieved by shrinking our egos and expanding our self-awareness.

 

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Sitting One

 I died today. 

I didn’t expect it to happen.  Then again, I did—well, not really.

No, I certainly didn’t expect it.

I’ve had moments of clarity in my life.  Amazingly enough, many of them were in the midst of a dream. For a brief second I would know the meaning of life or the missing treatment to cure cancer.  And then as quickly as it popped into my mind it was gone. I really don’t recollect dying.  Just this unbelievable sense of clear headedness—like walking into a room newly painted and knowing by the odor and brightness that the color on the wall is so splattering new that you should be careful not to touch it for fear of smearing the design. The greatest revelation of all? 

Twenty-five miles in the sky time ceases to exist.

The planet Pluto takes two hundred and forty-eight years to circle the sun. It doesn’t give a damn. 

The day of my death was the day I became free of the only burden I really ever had.  TIME.

Useless.

Time is fussy.  Time is worry. 

Time is fear.  Time is the culprit causing human-types to recoil from pending generosity. 

There just was never enough time. 

Time would not allow it.  Remember—“if time permits …”

Why if time permits?  Why not if I permit?  Why not if I dream?  Why not if I want?  Why does time get to dictate to me my passage? 

It was time that robbed me of my soulful nature.    It was time that convinced me that my selfishness was needed. 

I didn’t die. The clock in me died, leaving spirit to tick on.  

So why don’t we see the farce of time?  Why do we allow ourselves to fall under the power of the cruel despot?  Yes, time is a relentless master—very little wage for much demand.

I died today. 

Actually … a piece of time named after me was cast away.