Youth is Wasted on the Young Money is Wasted on the Rich
~unknown
Happy Groundhog Day 2023. Six More Weeks Of Winter…no matter what the rodent says.
You know, it isn’t something most people think about much. Until you start thinking about it. Maybe a traumatic event is the spark. Maybe it’s just the March of time catching up all at once. Suddenly you can’t stop thinking about.
Tick tock. Wondering. Worrying. Wishing. Waiting. Depends on who you are. Thinking about The End. Time running out. The final curtain.
It can become a toxic obsession, or maybe just motivation to live the life you really want to live. Regardless of how much time you spend thinking about it, it’s there, and I don’t think it’s such a bad thing. Well, it can be, if you get carried away.
I’d like to think it’s more about reflection and purification. If we are unconscious of our end, we don’t need to worry about doing any better. But if we consider how we’ll feel when we’ll have much less time left, maybe we can make more of the short time we have. Even the oldest humans live for a blink in the eye of the universe.
My mom used to say “youth is wasted on the young”. It took me until my 40s to start to understand. I’m still gaining insight every day, but as I gaze over the edge of sixty, I’m starting to have a pretty good idea where this is heading.
IF…You can keep your head when you’re surrounded by fucking idiots who blindly believe If you can fall and get up, when motherfuckers who should know better repeatedly knock you down If you dream of a future where no one goes hungry, or without the basic, important things that everyone needs If your head spins from lies, corruption and greed, from sources empowered, trusted as news. If you care about kindness and feel pain when others are hurt due to the ignorance and selfishness of those who are unkind. If you respect life and are sickened when people and animals suffer cruelty at the hands of inhumane humans. If you believe in equality and justice for everyone, and live in horror or fear at the hateful deeds of those who profit on racism and exploitation of the poor. If everything going on seems an insane new normal, each new insanity making the last one seem comfortable. If this world is not one you prefer, and the fuckheads in power seem doomed to make things worse If making things better still seems important, even after all we’ve all been through
Then remember one thing, my friend you must be For so many have eyes but refuse to be able to see through the lies to the truth on the table in Freedom’s last light We squint into nothingness Pretending it’s too fucking bright
Original poetry by Jamie Gray (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)
It’s time. Time for The Independent Party – A small, but strong group of Independent candidates, who could essentially become the swing vote in Congress on every major issue. A few members of Congress just proved how powerful a small coalition can be.
The creation of a third party that represents those independent votes, with only a few Congress members in a nearly 50/50 Congress, could result in those votes becoming the deciding votes. A couple Senators and a handful of Congress members is all it would take.
We, the educated, thinking class of America, could take out rightful place as the decision makers in this deeply disturbed land. It’s time we stop letting partisan idiots and fools make the important decisions that matter to ALL Americans.
Jamie Gray. Voter. Conjurer of Bytes, Notes & Words. Seeker of Truth, Peace, & Harmony. Read the full post: jamiegraymusic.com
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
I am ready. Time to say “fuck off and die” to 2022. I don’t make resolutions, but this year needs to be a better one, so I’m choosing to sculpt a better future in my mind, and watch it appear in my life. 2023: It begins. #newyear
Bianchi Particular is hard to find in the US. Gotta go to Buenos Aires.
We sent them fight We sent them to die Now The ones who came back Have to fight to survive
We owe them our future We gained from their loss We can’t leave them to suffer In the weight of their cost
The flag it still waves The red white and blue Oh say can you see what They’ve given for you When you wake up today Safe at home or afar Give thanks to the soldiers Wherever they are.
#VeteransDay2022
Conjurer of Bytes, Notes & Words. Seeker of Truth, Peace, & Harmony. Jamie Gray lives in upstate NY.
It’s just another election. Another chance to vote for someone you don’t know or care about, and hope they care about you, even though you know they don’t care about you. Two parties with one goal: to keep us regular people from wanting more.
The more we want, the less they can take. They make promises, but things move very slowly in government, and especially at the Federal level, change comes slowly. It can be frustrating. I’ve been expecting cannabis legalization ‘soon’ since 1980. Maybe it will happen this decade. Frustrating.
But I believe this election is different. They’ve taken away just about all they can take, from as many people as they could, and now they are coming for our democracy. Now they want the power to decide who wins the election without regard for our actual votes. They want the power to override the choices of the people, because their own choices are so unpopular that forcing them upon us is the only way.
It may be the one party that’s pushing for a more authoritarian America than the other right now, but in truth it’s the system that allowed it to get THIS bad. Our elections have become about money and manipulation, not issues that most people care about. Re-election and party loyalty have become more important than American progress and the Constitution.
Our government has lost it’s way. Once the greatest democratic experiment in the World, American politics has descended into a system of corporate rule, where the number of dollars is more important than the number of votes. Two party rule means we get to vote for two sides of the same old shit, and lack of term limits and ethics standards means it can be very profitable to be a lifetime politician.
We get to choose which politicians work for the corporate overlords, instead of public servants who work for US. Our government is run by an elite ruling class, rather than everyday Americans in service to make America better for All.
The Founders would cringe at the horror that we’ve wrought from their precious framework. But they also gave us the power to fix it…IF we choose to use it. IF we decide to reform our corrupt system, and refuse to allow our vote to become completely meaningless. Before the corrupt political elite make sure that we can’t.
I will vote tomorrow, and I’m voting BLUE because there are too many MAGA election deniers running on Team Red, and democracy is just too fucking important to fuck around.
#Vote #Election2022 #VoteBlue #Independent
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
America is on the edge. Many of the freedoms and the progress we’ve made toward civil rights are on the verge of being eliminated.
I’m not trying to scare anybody, but the time for business as usual is over. Thanks to greed, lies and partisan politics, the Rights of Americans have been abused and degraded. Police shoot at unarmed citizens because they are afraid. That should tell you something about the climate on the streets of America…if you’ve been living in a box and haven’t seen it for yourself already. Violence is everywhere. The System is Failing. Shit is breaking down, and things may get ugly.
It’s actually good news, if you can look past the painful present into a better, more equitable future for All. But the truth is, things usually have to break really badly, before they get fixed in America. Slightly broken just won’t do in the USA.
The bad news is that first, people will get hurt. Innocent people, who did nothing except try to live their lives. The assholes of the world will get a little richer and more powerful, and some people will die. Acceptable losses they’ll say. I don’t agree.
At some point though, people will get sick of the same old rich people fucking over everyone else. People will reach their breaking point, and demand better, and I think we’re very close to that precipice. But in America, things have to get REALLY BAD before that happens. Unless it affects people directly, let’s face it: We Americans just don’t give a fuck.
I know. Some of us do. If you’ve read this far, you probably do. I know I do. But so many intelligent, kind, and generous Americans avoid politics completely. Because by and large, American politics is a disgusting abuse of the public trust, legalized bribery at the highest levels, leaving the average voter relegated to just a number to be manipulated, based on race, religion and zip code. I get it, and I don’t blame them for not wanting to dirty their hands.
But we’ve ALL consented to being treated this way, either tacitly by not voting, or actively by voting, but not demanding better choices. They get away with it because we let them. They will keep taking, abusing our trust, until our vote means less than nothing, if we let them.
Here’s why: Government shouldn’t be done by career politicians, a privileged class of elite liars, skilled in wordcraft (most of them). It should be volunteers, who serve their country briefly, and then return to private life. Doctors. Teachers. Sanitation engineers. Artists. Secretaries. Bartenders. People who know about living in America and who want to make the best choices for Americans.
But more importantly, government should serve the people. All the people. Not just the ones who can afford to influence the politicians with their ‘donations’.
That can only happen if the millions of smart, caring, non-voting citizens, decide to get involved in ‘politics’, and use their voices…and their votes…to demand better.
Demand term limits Demand money out of politics Demand demilitarized police Demand equal rights Demand an end to the corporate oligarchy Demand better choices Demand transparency Demand Truth Demand Democracy
Get informed. Get involved. Vote. November 8th. Do it. Just fucking do it. We can be part of a bigger solution, not the same shit different day DC dog and pony show they think is fooling us. We’re not idiots.
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
