Power of Hate

Thomas Robb is the National Director of the Knights Party, a kinder gentler version of the old Knights of the Klu Klux Klan. They do their recruiting by talking about Love for White people instead of hating Blacks and Jews .

But they do promote a program calling for the "voluntary resettlement" of minorities to their home land. Considering the fact that Whites will be a minority in this country in the not to distant future I was wondering how they felt about all whites returning to Europe and allowing Native Americans to reclaim their Homeland. I can picture all of the tribes that we forced to march to Oklahoma returning to their birthplace in the South. some of them were my relatives. Of course my English,Scotch-Irish, French , and Dutch relatives could be a problem for me.

But if life has taught me anything, it has taught me that People who hate can call anyplace Home if they can build a power base.The election of Barac Obama and the use of Christian Symbolism has help them make a comeback in my Beloved South. They have even developed a Youth Program much like Hitler Youth to build from the ground up. Religion was a big part of Racial Prejudice in the days of "Jim Crow" Hopefully The church won't make the same mistakes again. Hopefully it will embrace the teachings of Jesus and the "Good Samaritan" rather than follow Moses and his Laws of Leviticus. Hopefully we will remember The Command to Love One Another and seek truth.

GAMER'S SALVATION

This poem was written by a friend of mine on Facebook named Travis Thoth. I am but amature 

in the art of Poetry but this piece appealed to me.  I ask his permission to share it with you and he graceiously agreeded. May it bring you the pleasure it brought me.

Poem - "Gamers' Salvation"

Dying a thousand deaths every moment of life,

I chase a dream only to find a nightmare.

I cage myself from the horrors of the world: 

Bound, eternally, to the horrors of my own soul.

O’ fantasy, free me from the tyranny of life.

Make me love me:

Even if I be not the object of my affections.

Hold my thoughts and senses from that which plagues me.

Now, I am Prince, Pauper, and Knight of Sacred Virtue.

Now, I am Sage, Saint, and Keeper of Great Wisdom.

Now, I am Maiden, Minstrel, and all things joyful.

Until the break in worlds, I am my desired me.

Copyrighted: 04/28/2009 Travis Thoth   https://www.facebook.com/Thudor?lst=1464858665%3A1179605328%3A1513621641

Old Men Shouldn't Shop

Early today I went to my favorite Big Box Store "CHINA'S BEST FRIEND". Its not that I don't Love America. We don't have a soup kitchen. so I have to buy my chicken broth and bacon bits as cheap as I can find them. I make my own soup with added water. But I'm leaving my train of thought.

I was really thinking about that "Old Saw" that women use (Shop till You Drop). I was busy looking for wheat Flakes, skim milk, and rubber gloves. My wife doesn't like me to touch her with my bear(bare) hands. 

 Suddenly, as I was shopping, my legs said you are going to drop. My legs are always the first to know.
I rushed to the checkout counter to avoid a 911 call. I frightened away one person in my line by shouting "Sick man coming through." ( I had once used that line on a crowed bus when I was a young foolish over drinker.  I had to throw up on three people to clear the way. By the time I got off the Bus there was enough room for everybody to sit.) But [once again] I have wondered from the path of my story. Old men often do that.

The point is , old me should not shop unless they have a companion. Dropping to the floor in a large store will either get you trampled on or make someone swap mouth juice with you for no good cause. Old men shouldn't shop except in an emergence.

William Hodge

Requiem for Unrequited Love

This piece was written in response to a romantic disaster of my youth and another later in life to a friend. Relationships now seem so casual that I'm not sure many will will find empathy with an intense one sided commitment of one to another.  The concept uses a female/ male romantic construct but the situation is a universal failure of an intended personal relationship.

The Requiem

We celebrate the Life and Mourn the Death Of this Spirit Child of Love. It sprang from the Heart of its Mother, full of promise, seeking succor at the heart of its intended Father But He knew it not. His own Heart saw it as a stranger and could not take it in.

It is not the fault of the Father that the child is Dead. It could have lived in the Heart of the Mother unrequited. But the Spirit Child of Love would not grow without succor and so the Mother Killed it. We are here to scatter its ashes in the barren desert of its Mother's Soul.

But as You Mourn its Death Know that it can be reborn. Its ancestor is the Phoenix. When it hears the Siren cry of new Love it will arise from its ashes out of the barren desert and leap forth into the world from the Heart of its Mother seeking succor from the Heart of its new intended Father

Love can never die. As long as there are those that give it birth, it will spring forth into the world. And where it finds nurture it will grow and Blossom into a thing of Beauty and bring Joy into the lives of those who behold it. 

Despair  is replaced with anticipation. Hear the Song of the siren. Hear it and give Birth. Sing it and nurture that which you have wrought. Share it and know Joy.

Copyright © 2004 William H. Hodge. All rights reserved
　

Tree of Knowledge

Tree of knowledge

 God placed man in the Garden that He planted East of Eden, He gave him everything he needed to survive. He even gave him a tree that would allow him to live forever. It was called the Tree of life. But there was a small wrinkle in the plan. There was also a tree called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Since Adam and Eve had been put in the Garden, they had been walking around naked. As it turns out this was considered a sin. As soon as they acquired knowledge they were ashamed of what they were doing. I have always wondered why God thought it was alright to sin as long as Adam & Eve were ignorant. But I get ahead of myself.

The question that has puzzled me the most is why He put the Tree there in the first. If He really wanted stupid people to represent Him as his creation, why put the tree there in the first place.

 If He created the Serpent, surely He must have known the Serpent had wanted man to have a different future from the one God had planned. God decided to teach the Serpent a lesson. That reminded me of what the Greek God Zeus did to Prometheus for giving man the gift of fire. Apparently Gods get a little angry if they think you are a threat to their power.

One other thing that has puzzled me is why the Church teaches that man was removed from the Garden because he disobeyed.   In Genesis: 3rd Chapter verse 22 "The Lord God said: Obviously in knowing Good and Evil, man has become like one of us. Now then , he might reach out his hand to pluck and eat from the Tree of Life so as to live forever. So the Lord God expelled him from the Garden of Eden....."  It seems to me the Gods were just afraid of Man's potential. But I guess the apple hasn't fallen too far from the tree.  Powerful men are also jealous of those who threaten their power.   The lesson must be to remain ignorant and do what you are told.

William Hodge 

Unitarian Universalist ?

        

I went to a Unitarian Universalist Church in Columbia, SC for a brief time many years ago when I began my love affair with being a Seeker of new ideas. It was too far to drive . My commitment level to anything was not at the "passionate" level in those days. Actually, it still isn't. But I have good memories of warm, tolorant, and thoughtful people. Any Group that could welcome a former conservative Southern Baptist into their church approached life with open arms. I found this Group while Facebook surfing and wanted to share their humor with you.


You may be a Unitarian Universalist if:

1. You think socks are too formal for a Summer service.
2. You know at least 5 ways to say "Happy holidays!"
3. Your idea of a guy's night out is going to a N.O.W. rally.
4. Unleavened bread is part of your Easter Brunch.
5. You refer to construction paper as "paper of color."
6. The name of your church is longer than your arm.
7. You find yourself rewriting a church survey, rather than taking it.
8. You call up your minister in the middle of the night, panicking because you are starting to believe in God.
9. To explain your personal theology, you have to use interpretive dance.
10. You take your day planner to church instead of the Bible.

Street Poets "Sonnet to a Rose"

MY SWEET JEAN

This Sonnet was written by me for my Wife many years ago. I am not a serious Formal Poet so I don't pretend that it is aMasterpiece. But I am ready to share it with any who might care.

Sonnet to a Rose

Sweet Rose, Symbol of fragrance and beauty
Shed every rainbow hue save lonely blue
Kiss the early morn. Sate your thirst with dew.
Seek the warm rays of the Sun by Dawns Decree.
Share your sweet nector with the bumble bee.
when there he comes to seek his fill of you.
The life he brings will make you live anew With that life do lovers do their duty.
For with this rose,the symbol of my love
I offer wrapped in dreams of my desire.
To one who fills the depth of soul in me.
With touch of its soft petals,I conspire
To win her Heart and all her Love acquire.
Sweet sweet Rose...symbol of this lovers plea.

Copyright © 2004 William H. Hodge All rights reserved
　
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　This short piece was not written by me and I never learned the name of the author. But I liked it enough to include it.

To me, you are a delicate Rose
Whose beauty never dies
When pressed between the pages
Of a good book;
Or caught between the pages
Of my mind.
- Unknown Author
　

Dick and Jane brings me back

Dick and Jane was my first Grade reader 61 years ago. I bought a new addition of it for my grandchildren. They could read it in Kindergarden. I had no Kindergarden but a mother who cared.

TO A NEW BEGINNING

We Have Hope

The last time I wrote something on this Blog was in 2004, just before George Bush won his second term.So much has changed and yet so little. I'm still basically the same person(just older), but the country has change around me.
The greed that feeds and motivates our economic system has brought us to the edge of disaster. It often has in the past. It will bring us back from the edge when we have made conditions right as it also has done in the past.

It also brought the Republicans to their knees, at least for now. It helped to elect a new kind of President that I could not have hoped to believe would happen for many years into the future. It is equally hard to believe how much joy that could bring to the heart of this old Southern White Boy. I have always wanted to believe in the future of the Human Race. Perhaps my grandchildern will see the beginning of such an age.

The thing that makes me sad is that my Beloved South has allowed the Republican money people to convince many of the Christians among us that the Laws of Moses imposes  material "moral values" that overide the Power of Love that Jesus taught us. It was easy to do because most whites don't want to vote for a party that shares power with minorities. Richard Nixon and Harry Dent converted the South to Republicanism Now we stand on the sideline of History with our Fear & Guilt  while others change the world for the better.

During the last Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt gave us Social Security(upon which I now depend for dignity and sustinence) and he led us into the new world. What will the Democrats  do for America now while the Republicans are "wandering in the Wilderness" searching for the New Fear to help feed the Greed of unbridaled Capitalism. Hopefully we will learn to controlled greed and fill both need to eliminate Poverty and growth Wealth at the same time.