In 2001, there was no space odyssey

In 2001, there was no space odyssey.
There was only hatred's idiocy.

Don't be lost in the insanity of anger.
Don't seethe anymore over
the graves of thousands brutally murdered
because of a religious idea conceived in idiocy.

Ideas are things both wondrous and dangerous.
They can raise up our hearts
or dash our souls against the rocks.

Love is the best idea of all.
Love even if you don't like.
I re-learn this idea's lesson
again and again each day,
as I reach for a rock
with which to bash
my fake enemies head
to a pulp.

I realize
at that moment,
the real enemy
is
me.

So, I return quickly to the idea of love.
I must.

Love is the savior of us all.
Love unceasingly. Love unfailingly.
But above all, love the idea of love.
In that idea is true religion.
If there is God,
That idea relinks us to its divinity.
And, we are saved.



--- What was the original American Aurora? The Aurora was a newspaper published by Benjamin Franklin Bache , a grandson of Benjamin Franklin. The Aurora was published in Philadelphia, our nation's capitol at the time.

The Aurora was highly critical of what Bache felt was the tyrannous Federalist governments of presidents Washington and Adams.

The result? Adams imprisoned Bache for sedition, where he languished, awaiting trial, until his death from yellow fever at age 29.

The Burden of a Date

The Burden of a Date (a poem)

I was born on Pearl Habor Day in 1959.

I no longer celebrate my birthday because of the weight

of that date.

I can't. 

My uncle Julio (Dad's brother) fought in the Pacific during that war.

My uncle Henry (my maternal grandmother's brother) and other relatives fought in Europe.

The date is seared on my soul.

It is not my date.

I no longer celebrate.

I can't. 

My nephew was born on Sept 10

only a few years before 2001.

I fear that his birthday will become the same,

with September 11 so close.

For me, 9/11 has the same gravity

as 12/7. 

I fear it will for him as well,

that he will no longer be able to

play and celebrate

the most important

date of his life

because of the weight of the next day.

Yet, I hope he can. 

If an American can forget the significance of 9/11,

he or she was not likely born on or before that date.

He or she did not work in their careers

with people in those towers, as I did.

He or she did not date in high school

someone who worked in those towers,

who mercifully was fired a few months earlier,

from Citibank,

who sent an e-mail and hoped

beyond hope she had survived,

who did not receive reply for four days,

as I did.

There is likely no direct memory of the date.

There is no burden in the weight of the date.

There is no connection to a personally significant day,

one a family should celebrate with a joyous heart,

but cannot because of the date.

And, that may be a good thing.

Bearing a burden like that

is almost more than a soul can bear.

I now hide on my birthday

to avoid the emotional connection.

I revile in wishes for a happy day,

knowing thousands of corpses lay beneath the waves

in Pearl Harbor,

drowned or incinerated by

the horrors of insanity.

I wish with all my heart

that the people who don't feel

the burden of a date,

like 12/7 or 9/11,

because they have no personal connection

to it,

enjoy that grace-filled mercy,

the peace-filled mercy,

of the date,

and stay that way.

--- What was the original American Aurora? The Aurora was a newspaper published by Benjamin Franklin Bache , a grandson of Benjamin Franklin. The Aurora was published in Philadelphia, our nation's capitol at the time.

The Aurora was highly critical of what Bache felt was the tyrannous Federalist governments of presidents Washington and Adams.

The result? Adams imprisoned Bache for sedition, where he languished, awaiting trial, until his death from yellow fever at age 29.