Because of Today The Brass Ring Can Be Reached By All

• January 22, 2009 – 1:23 am
• Posted in Bi-racial, Life, Obama, Surviving a Crisis, change, freedom, fulfillment, love, poetry
• Tagged choice, constitution, destiny, faith, freedom, God, hope, justice, new age, Obama, obama poem, poem, poetry, witness
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The following poem is dedicated to three men who are not here to read it, but were it not for them, I would not be the person that I am today writing it.

It is dedicated to my father Aguinaldo, my brother Alfonso, and my surrogate father Al Wallach.  These three men refused to yield to what
they believed to be injustice.  They instilled in me the deep conviction, that if we try to hide from injustice, if we tolerate injustice, or even if we ignore injustice, we are destroying any hope that in this world, there will ever be justice.  They were not here to witness this day – but I think that they planned it that way so that
they would have the best seats in Heaven.

Today the World Changed

I did not receive a release of my debts

But still, a debt was paid this day to a people,

To my people

Today the world changed

For one moment

Those men who sat for days to build a foundation

Upon which a more perfect union could be built

And those slaves who gave their blood, sweat and tears

To lay the bricks and mortar that would secure that foundation

And the Red man, from whom all of this was taken

Rose in silent witness

All of those souls – joining hand, and heart

Standing side by side cried tears of Joy

For the resurrection of the Spirit of America

Today the world changed

Not with a bang – but with a whisper

A whisper that resounded throughout the world

And into the Heavens

The sky did not fall

Only that impenetrable ceiling upon which, the words,

“You may rise no further, this club is for “White Men Only”

Came tumbling down like the walls of Jericho.

Today the world changed

The last unyielding, inhumane, bloody chains of oppression gave way,

The spirits of my Hebrew ancestors who escaped Egypt

And had cried that they could not be really free until all mankind was free

Stand, arm in arm with the spirits of all of the slaves that toiled
to build this country as the they had once toiled to build the pyramids,

Together their tears of joy rain down on us,

For they are all finally free, and the yokes of slavery and fear

Are removed from their generation

Today the world changed

Millions gathered ,of all ages, races, religions, genders, gay and straight, from all nations and all political ideologies

And above this multitude of men, women and children

Unnoticed, inconspicuous

Flloated  a multitude of Angelic Beings

All huddled together to bear witness to

the New World of Man,

the resurrection of Hope,

the resurrection of faith,

And the resurrection of Divine Love,

Today the world changed

The President of the most Powerful Nation in the world,

Was  raised up by the hands of the thousands of slaves who laid

The path that he walked , who built the stairs that he climbed,

And with pride and overflowing hearts they placed him in the highest seat.

They were able to work through the pain, the blood, and the exhaustion without giving up,

Without laying down to die,

Fueled and Driven by the faith that

One day, if they built it -

He would come

and complete the circle.

Today the world change

Never again can a teacher tell a little black, Hispanic, or native American child,

“You cannot reach for that goal, why even try, just wash dishes, clean houses

Get those foolish notions out of your head”

Never again, can a teen on the corner selling drugs to other teens

be able to say,

“The White man condemned me to this life, it is not my fault”

Never Again will the Black, Latino or Asian child be able to say that there is nothing more to aspire to

because they are Black, Latino, Chicano, or Asian

except to die in a gang.

Because – this day, if we look to our left, and we look to our right, there

Is the White man -

He is not in front -

He is not in control,

He is one of us – Today, the united States of America had declared this from here on,

Open seating

Today the world changed

No more can a boy or girl, living in a blighted ghetto or an arid dying suburb say,

“I cannot become whatever I want”

No one can ever, from this day forward say, I can’t.

No excuses left – no justifications left,

There is no greater or more meaningful role-model

Than the President Of The United States.

Today life’s struggles are still overwhelming us,

The tunnel which now darkly surrounds us

Has become neither shorter, nor easier,

And for so many of us – the light at the end of that tunnel,

Has grown no brighter.

Today the roof of my house shelters my family,

Tomorrow, it may be the roof of our car,

But if I have to struggle through the challenges of each day

This is the world that I want to struggle in.

Today the world changed

The dark and spiritless landscape that I stared out at yesterday

Has become a garden with the just  the tiniest buds of hope, of possibility, and of Light.

Whatever lies ahead for me, I have lived the best of my life.

My greatest fear was that my children would not have the chance to know

what the best might be.

And I know that the best that lies before my children will be much different than mine -

For mine was not real, it was made of glittering dust and ashes of the material world -

like a star we see far off in the distance of the night sky – so beautiful, yet

As soon as we see it, it is dead -

As soon as we obtain that far off material goal – it too is dead,

Ashes to ashes – dust to dust -we search for the next one.

Today the world has changed

The world of my children will not glitter,

It will radiate.

They will remember what being drunk with the world destroyed,

And so they will seek joy – and not intoxication.

History will record that this date ushered in a New Age

This is a great man,

but a great man cannot climb great heights alone

A great man can only accomplish great things by standing on

the shoulders of ordinary men and women,

Today the world changed

It changed because of white, black yellow and red, Jew, Christian,
Muslim, Sufi, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindi, Mormon, Atheist,, Agnostic, and
all other faiths -

men and women, gay and straight,

and the littlest of children,

the tiniest of Angels,

all raised him up, with their voices, and their prayers

pledged their toil, their struggles, their nickels, their dimes, their hopes and their dreams.

Because although this man is great

equally great are the people, the nation and  the world that would not let him down.

Today the world changed

Because one man claimed his place in history,

and showed us that we must claim our voices,

We must shout from the rooftops until we are heard,

And never, never be silent again.

He reminded us, and the world that this is our country -

and in the greatest sense – it is the country of the world -

there is no nation that does not have its own seeds planted in this garden.

And Today the World Is Proud to Be An American

And I am proud to have my country back

Today the world changed

I have my Statue of Liberty back,

This Lady was given to us as a reminder of who we are,

and why we are,

As clearly etched eternally on her foundation:

I have taken my faith back,

Knowing in my heart and soul that this moment has sealed it

forever.

Whatever happens, for better or for worse cannot erase,

cannot tarnish,

cannot touch in any way the undeniable fact,

That Today Happened

And it happened to every man woman and child in the world,

And with that faith – I have a reason to go on.

Today the world changed

The Last Great door opened wide today

The Last “Whites Only” sign

Has come down,

And with it, the last excuse for not trying,

or forever yielding the fight Before it’s begun

The White Man has not surrendered -

better than this,

He has realized that we are all in it together

And to stand, we must stand together

Today the world changed

All because one man, foolhardy enough to think that he could,

Promised millions of people around the world, that, “Yes We Can,”

And yes, together we did,

Today The World Changed

This is for every little child of every race, religion, and national origin,

you can dream even bigger,  reach for that far off star

even farther,

And for every man or woman who sees -Nothing

Whose lost -Everything,

You!  Find that dream, dust it off,

And dream it like you’ve never dreamed before,

Search for that star

You long ago lost track of,

And MOVE!

RUN!

REACH !

Everything is possible so long as we

Can hold our dreams

and keep our eyes on our stars,

Today the world changed

Today, with brown hand placed on the Bible, this man said, “I accept”

And we heard his heart say to us,

I accept your trust, I accept your faith,

I accept your dreams and your hopes.

I accept your need to believe

and I will honor them,

and I will honor you

with every breath in every day.

Today the world changed

On this cold, clouded winter afternoon

We were warmed, united in sacred ceremony

That at last

Meant something

in a place within each of us that we no longer dared go,

Under a common shining light

As One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice For All

It matters not what tomorrow brings -

whatever it brings will pass

Only this moment will shine forever

Through whatever darkness lies ahead

It will shine

It will shine until the last hungry child is fed,

It will shine until the last sick child is healed,

And it will shine until the last guns have been beaten into plowshares,

And until the missiles have been beaten into pruning hooks:

and nation no longer lifts up a sword against nation,

And  neither shall we learn war any more.

Today, The world changed

And nothing again as long as we live will ever be deemed, impossible.

Denise Gibel-Molini

We can stop fighting for our right to be Capitalists, the club is full

Here in the material world what matters is what we do, not our intent.  It is all about the results.  Because we are judged by our actions, the temptation is obtain a certain result, and often by whatever means possible.  “The ends justify the means” is something often said.  This is the consequence of living in an apparent world.  We are not punished for violating the law, we are punished for getting caught.

We create rules and laws so as to maintain order in the material world.  The benefit of creating the rules is that we can amend them to fit our desires.  After time, we equate what is legal with what is moral and ethical.  More often than not, honesty is motivated by fear rather than a need to live by Spiritual truths.   Ultimately we seek material security and we see this as best achieved through wealth and power.  We are like babies, who play peek-a-boo.  They think that if they can’t see you, you can’t see them.  A desire to feel significant motivates us to meet or exceed whatever society currently deems the standard for being valuable.

If Society applauds charity, we will be seen as charitable, if it is money, we will appear to have money.  If it is beauty, we will do whatever we must do to look beautiful.  We seek to look good.  When the light shines on us, we want to be viewed as special.  Most of us judge ourselves by the judgment of others.  Someone can go to church or to Temple every week, and be certain to tithe the appropriate amount to be seen as a charitable church going person.  Monday, that same person can lay off hundreds of workers in order to avoid having to deal with a decrease in his or her lifestyle – unfazed by the lives being destroyed in order to maintain a level of opulence.

A knife can be used to cut the food that we eat, and it can be used to kill.  We have found that almost everything that we create can be used to enhance lives or destroy them; the choice is dependent on our free will.  So, we have been given the ability to use logic, reason and creativity to make the world into a Heaven, or to justify why it is not our responsibility.  If there were a Satan, then the extent of his power would be to present us with an opportunity to make a choice.  Everything in our lives creates a choice.  And as a race, as inhabitants of this planet earth we have all participated in making the choices that have led us to where we are today.   It is very easy to see that the problems that we face are the result of greed, greed we attribute to the comparatively few who control the greatest amount of the world’s wealth.  But that is the easy answer.  It is easy to blame them because they are sitting on piles of money while we are waiting for the crumbs that will no longer be flowing downward – but we are all, or the majority of us are equally to blame.

The system that ensured that the wealth of the world would eventually settle in the hands of a privileged few has been fought for and protected by us, we the majority who hoped that if we fought to maintain the system – we too would one day be on top of that mountain and reap the rewards of that system.  Those who have are no greedier than those who want.  The difference is positioning – not intention.    The Capitalist system that has evolved – as it naturally would is by its design exclusionary.  It is a pyramid by continued design and fortification.  Most of us have not fought for an auto executive’s right to make $50,000,000.00, we fought so that, the right to make that money will be waiting if we get there.   Capitalism was never unfair until it became unfair to us.  We don’t follow the obviously – built-in trail of Capitalism that leads to poverty unless it leads to us.  Everything that is a reality becomes so because there is enough emotional energy behind it to raise it from the unmanifest realm to the manifest.  We have fought to defend a system that only works because the bottom is heavy enough to support the top.

The system is wrong.  It is not open and it is not fair.  It is not built to be fair, and that is why we have liked it, because if and when we rise to the top, we too, want the ability to block all the entrances so that none of the wealth slips out.  It seems impossible to imagine that anyone with a High School degree could not figure out that if we keep milking all of the resources from the bottom of the pyramid, thereby shrinking it, and pulling all of those resources to the top of the pyramid, thereby grossly enlarging it, it would become an inverted pyramid and fall.  The only possible explanation for how we could have reached this point is that we have, in great numbers, become consumed with lust for the things of the world at the expense of our ability to see where this would take us all.

There are four basic rights which form the foundation of Capitalism.   The four basic rights are:  the right to private property. The right to keep all profits made after taxes, the right of choice and the right to compete with other business’.   As with all rights, there is no limit to the extent to which one may go to defend those them.  If I come up with an idea for a new kind of car, the major auto makers have the “right” to use their considerable wealth and power to make sure that my car never reaches the market.  Capitalism eliminates the possibility of a free market.  I don’t have a lobby.  If a corporation chooses to pay all of the earnings to the upper management, while eating through the pensions of the employees, they have that right.  However, under this system, the only right that I have as an employee is the right to quit.  It has become almost the equivalent of being anti-American to criticize the Capitalist system, as though it has somehow replaced Democracy in our minds – somehow we have come to see the two as one, when in reality the fulfillment of one nullifies the other.

It is the Capitalist system that has spread like a cancer throughout the world and is eating us alive.  Capitalism is not Democracy.  Democracy is harder to spread.  Equality is only popular with those who believe that they are not being treated equally.  We are only at the beginning of the suffering that this cancer is causing in the world.  We are like diabetics who are looking for another cause for our diabetes because we can’t face giving up sugar.  I think that we all know how that turns out.  We need to give up our search for happiness in money.  People with money are not happy because of the money, they are happy in spite of it, and we need to stop buying the whole appearances thing.  It is time for us to revision the American Dream.  It should be the dream where everyone is able to have enough, enough food, enough shelter, enough love and therefore, enough happiness.  Those of us, who are not on the top of the material food chain need to seek joy in what we can all share, seek entrance into the club with open membership.  And those of us who are hiding behind our golden gates, need to open those gates and find ways to share what we have that we will never need with those who need but will never otherwise have.  This is a moment of choice.  It is a time to reach into all of our hearts and light them up with generosity, and a desire for equinimity, or wait, just a little while longer and it will all be taken away as our world crumbles around us.  At this time, it no longer matters what other people think about us based on what they see.  Now we are being carefully monitored by the One who sees what no one else does, the One who sees into our hearts and watches what we do.  It will never again look as good to have more as it does to give more.

How Did We Get So Broken?

“Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of total spending in the economy. If the level of consumer spending is high, the economy will experience high levels of production and employment; the economy will be booming. On the other hand, if the level of consumer spending declines, the level of production and employment will decline; the economy will be in the doldrums. According to Keynesian theory, the most important determinant of consumer spending is the level of disposable income of households. Important non-income factors that affect consumer spending include consumer expectations, the level of consumer indebtedness, and the wealth of households.”

If we are a nation, and not just people living within close proximity to one another, then to me, that implies a certain amount of unity – a family in the loose sense.  The reason for government, it seems, would be to ensure that there is a system for all, and that the system works for the people – all of the people.

The situation that we are in today, is the result of an economic system.  I am assuming that ‘free enterprise’ is free within the boundaries of some general economic system in place to prevent the bankruptcy of the nation.  However, I have to say that I am absolutely amazed that no one involved in the ’system’ that we have here in this country saw this coming.  I really mean amazed, shocked, astounded – because I can’t see how our ’system’ as it is, could ever be expected to work.  It seems to me, that it doesn’t even work in theory.

It’s like a monopoly game where one player has managed to buy all of the hotels.  Now, since that player owns all of the hotels, he now decides to raise the rates to an exorbitant amount.  It doesn’t take very long before the only player with any money is the one who owns the hotels.  Unless he now plays with himself and pays himself to stay in his hotels – the game is over.

I remember after about the first year after we declared victory in Iraq I read an article  by a man who said that he witnessed the ‘war games’, that generally precede a war.  In these games he said that all different scenarios are usually played out in order to understand what we are getting into and how we will get out of it.  He said that the problem with these particular games was that there were no real scenarios played out.  All possible outcomes of each action were not played out.  In other words, we were unprepared because we were not willing to risk the possibility that this could not be a wise move.

So, I’m wondering, when all of this deregulation was pursued with such enthusiasm and gusto, and all of these protections were set in place to protect big business, did the heads of the government in charge of finances and whatever economic ’system’ we have in place, map out the possible direction that these new ’systems’ could take us?  Because it seems to me that this was much worse than looking at the patriotism, and self-restraint of corporate America through rose colored glasses.  It seems to me, that it was something like taking a bunch of junkies and letting them loose in a heroine den saying only, “We trust you to show restraint”.  Yeah, right, that works.   I don’t understand how a government that felt it necessary to create a ‘minimum wage’, however miniscule that minimum is, did so because it realized that greed could not be self-regulated.

Of course, being on the bottom end of the bottom that is falling out, this situation that we are in is a bit troubling to me.  Still, what I find the most difficult to understand is that it was allowed to happen.  If this is a consumer driven economy, it seems to me that until the consumers can find jobs, affordable healthcare, and then find their way out of debt, then, and only then – at some distant time in the future, one that seems far far away will we once again have the disposable income to again drive the economy.  I only hope that while most of us are too poor today to even drive our cars – let alone drive an economy, the government figures out that giving money to the companies whose addiction to wealth and power put us into this mess, expecting them to then turn around and make things all better is like giving a junkie the cash to repay the mortgage he took out to buy his drugs.