it has gotten to the point that some Americans behave like Islamic jihadists toward people who disagree with them and their leaders

 

    Ok, younguns, some really serious shit today.

    Where to begin?

    Perhaps with something I read that a German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said: “Silence in the face of Evil itself is Evil, God will not hold us guiltless.”

    Bonhoeffer is best known for his book, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP, in which he compares what he called “cheap grace” with the real thing. I think every Christian should read that book.

    Bonhoeffer and other German men planned to assassinate Adolph Hitler and were caught and that was the end of them.

    It has come to the pointin America where one person has gathered a huge following that behaves like Islamic jihadists when they don’t like what someone says about them and their leader.

    I had my first taste of that vibe when I was invited into something, and the instigator had a change of heart and left me in a serous lurch and threatened to call the police on me, and I warned her, if she did not back off, I would publish her and my emails and our Facebook messenger chat at my blog, so people could see what really happened, and she called he police on me, and I published her and my correspondence, and she sued me, and lost, and she sued me again, and lost. I defended myself, because I was homeless and could not afford a lawyer.

    A man I knew well, who joined the instigator by bashing me online, had kidney failure and was put on dialysis. A blogger, who joined the instigator by bashing me on his blog and reported me to the Alabama elder protection agency, got a wellness visit from a district attorney and law enforcement and shit his pants, and his lawyer brother, who had joined in, was fired by his state agency employer. Covid-19 made the instigator an invalid.

    The other day, the fellow who operates the refreshingly delightful Free Radio Rulu Newsletter, https://freeradiorulo.substack.com/, invited me to send him a “fictitious” letter to the editor. I replied, be careful what you ask for? He said to let fly.

Ahoy, Wonder Bread truck free radio station Rulu, Nebraska...

I have to say, you are a cornhusker wonder to behold.

I do not say that lightly as a long-time Alabama Crimson Tide fan.

I say it as someone who has shot off his mouth and pen for a very long time, disturbing the self-deemed precious  STATUS QUO.

The HEAD UP WHERE THE SUN NEVER SHINES religion, or should I say, cult?

The POLITICOS and the RELIGIOUS, who FEATHER their and their friends and families' NESTS.

And their LAWYERS’ nests.

I am a lawyer, by the way. Or was one. Well, it's probably terminal, like Ebola. But IT takes much longer.

In the past I ran ten times for local public office, claiming God told me to run, if I knew what was good for me.

I detested politics, but I was dragooned in a dream to roll up my sleeves and dive into that raunchy sewer. So, I dove.

I never came close to winning, so I didn’t have to ask for a recount.

I always was the minority report, out of the box, the pissant, some might say.

But, my goodness, it actually was some fun, when I wasn’t moaning about it.

I named my good morning blogs in salute to the VERY SUBVERSIVE “Good Morning Vietnam” movie, may Robin Williams, the Vietnam war dead and those blogs all rest in peace.

It was many years after that war that I considered JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcom X all got shot dead after they came out against America at war in Vietnam.

I had a pretty big reader following at my blogs.

I spoke hundreds of times at city and county commission meetings, school board and other local government meetings.

I got quoted in local newspapers, one of which likened me to Don Quixote in an editorial cartoon.

I got interviewed by local radio and TV stations.

I gave real estate developers and their lawyers and their captured city and county commissioners hell, and then some.

But dang, I never dreamed of having my own Wonder Bread truck radio station.

I don’t now recall how I stumbled across you and instantly recognized a fellow kamikaze pilot, balls to the wall, no sacred cow left un-poked, skewered, drone-missiled.

And to beat all, you are a POET!

The SCANDAL!

Once upon a time, when I lived in Boulder, Colorado, I met a woman disc jockey in Salt Lake City, who had her own morning call in show. She interviewed me several times by telephone, and the Christians and the Momons in Salt Lake lit up the station’s phones.

One day we were to entertain the Salt Lake folks, she called around breakfast to ask if I had heard what was on the news and did I still want to do the interview? 

The news was the federal assault of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

I said, of course. Just tell your audience ahead of time that you will be interviewing the Devil in Waco.

She laughed.

She did the promo, and oh my God, the station’s phone lines started lighting up after she asked me who I was, and I said, The Devil, and where I was, and I said, In Waco, Texas, and why was I there, and I said, to see how people make my work so easy for me that I mostly hang out on Maui staring at half naked beautiful women on beaches.

I dunno. It just now occurs to me that maybe that was my first plunge into national politics, or any kind of politics.

Now, I have to tell you this.

Back when I wuz running for local office, you could shoot off your mouth about politics and religion without worrying much about somebody shooting you. But as you have observed, times have really changed, and while I keep shooting off my mouth here and there, it won’t surprise me to walk outside some day and look down to see red laser dots on my chest.

So, while I hope you keep on poking the places that deserve poking, this 81+ grandfossil the Smithsonian is still trying to recapture, after it let me out for a walk one day and I snuck behind a bush and gnawed off the hind foot with the tracker on it and grew another hind foot and hightailed it, also hopes you have plenty of Kevlar and a band of battle angels backing you up, who truly appreciate fools who rush in where angels fear to tread, but if there were no fools, who’d lead the angels?

    Not long ago, I mentioned in one of my tales to you younguns that a 4-year black of the soul began to lift in 1995 after I had three visions, and that I might share those visions with you later on. I think this might be time to do that.

    I spontaneously lived these three visions in about 4 days' time while oceans of tears and rivers of snot ran out of me. You can view the visions as parables, but they are far more than that, and are free for you, and anyone, to claim and use.

of men, wolves and eagles … 

Once upon a time there lived a man named Joseph, who grew tired of living with people and left his village and went into the woods to live. 

By and by, a wolf pack discovered Joseph and over time got to know him and that he was not like other men, and eventually they took him into their pack. The leader of the pack was a red wolf named David, and soon David and Joseph became fast friends, and they hunted and played and slept together like . . . wolves. 

Then one day, the men in the village where Joseph had lived learned from hunters that Joseph was living with wolves. The men decided it was not right for a man to go off and live in the woods and run with with wolves, so they got their guns and set off to find Joseph and bring him back to the village, to live like a man. 

The men came upon the wolf pack sleeping in the sun next to a bluff. The wind was blowing off the bluff, away from the wolf pack toward the men, which prevented the pack from scenting the men as they approached. By the time the wolf pack realized the men were there, the men had the pack surrounded, pinned against the bluff. 

David wanted to order the pack to attack, but Joseph said, “No, I am a man, they will listen to reason, let me go and speak with them.” Although David did not like this idea, he agreed to it because Joseph was a man. But the men would not listen to reason and they shot and killed the entire pack and took Joseph heartbroken back to the village. 

Joseph languished in the village for many weeks, blaming himself for the death of his pack. 

Then, Joseph has a dream, in which he sees David’s face. David is angry, but says nothing, just stares. Finally, Joseph blurts out that he did the best he knew how to do, and he’s so sorry for the way it turned out! David says, “Better that we attacked and died like wolves, than be slaughtered like sheep!” 

Then, Joseph is back with the pack, against the bluff, surrounded by the men. David says he wants the pack to attack. Joseph says, “And I will lead the charge!” Then, they hear a voice, the whole pack hears it, say, “There is another way, ask for another way.” Never before have Joseph, David or the pack had such a thing happen, but Joseph asks for another way. 

Suddenly, a great bolt of lightning strikes the ground between the pack and the men, stirring up a huge cloud of dust. As the the dust begins to settle, it begins to take the shape of something huge. The wolves and Joseph then see a pair of golden eyes peering from the bushes behind the men. Then a second pair of golden eyes. Then a third pair. Then ten pair. Then a hundred pair. Then a legion of . . . wolves’ eyes. The men are moved by some force to turn around and see what the now delirious pack already see. 

Then, the men turn back around and find themselves face to face with a great towering eagle, whose piercing golden eyes penetrate their hearts. Then, they hear, “These are my battle angels. You may leave this place and go back to your village, taking your guns with you, on condition that you tell everyone what has happened here today.” 

To this condition the men readily agree, and they return to their village and tell everyone what happened, and they go to nearby villages and tell it.

something about lions …

Once upon a time there lived a woman named Alya. She was the medicine woman in her tribe, using herbs and poultices and spirit ways to help her people. Yet she had one flaw: she hated lions, because a lion had killed her father. Her hatred caused her to cast spells against lions, which caused her husband great concern. He often told Alya that her war with lions was going to get her into big trouble, but she was a medicine woman, she knew the ways of the spirits, and she did not listen to her husband. 

One day while Alya was out gathering herbs, she spotted a lion sunning himself in tall grasses on the savannah. She hatched a scheme in her mind to sneak up on the lion and cast a spell on him, which would enable her to steal his spirit and have it for herself. As she crept closer to the lion, she began chanting softly and seeing in her mind’s eye her spell taking over the lion. However, she was so focused on what she was doing, that she did not see in her mind’s eye the lion’s mate returning from hunting. Nor did she see the lioness catch her sent, drop her kill from her mouth to the ground and circle around behind. Too late, Alya realized her peril, just as the lioness took her from behind.

Next thing Alya knows, she is in the spirit world, standing before the Lion Spirit. Trembling with terror, Alya wants to run away, but the Lion Spirit speaks to her heart, says, “There is something you do not yet know.” 

Then, Alya is back on the savannah, watching a hunter from her tribe sneaking up on a nest of lion cubs, whose parents are away hunting. The hunter has a twisted spirit, and decides to kill the lion cubs just for the fun of doing it, even though killing any animal just for sport is taboo in his tribe, which worships the Lion Spirit. On returning to his village, the hunter tells no one what he has done. 

When the lion and lioness return to their nest and find their dead cubs, they are enraged. They catch the hunter’s scent and track him back to the edge of the village, where the lion hides in a thicket and begins roaring and bellowing out his rage over what has happened. The hunter knows why the lion is there, doing that, but still he tells no one.

 

Alya’s father, the tribe’s leader, prepares to go out and face and kill the lion, because it his duty to protect his tribe from marauding lions. And so he sets out to face the lion, even as the hunter lets him go without saying what has happened to bring this about, and that a lioness is also out there with the lion. 

Alya’s father quickly finds and confronts the lion, and is preparing to kill it with his spear, when he is taken from behind by the lioness. In her horror, Alya helplessly watches on, even as she now realizes that her hatred of lions was completely misplaced. She feels awful.

 

Then suddenly Alya is back on the savannah, stalking the lion whose spirit she once wanted to steal for herself. The lion looks up, stares into Alya’s eyes. She shakes all over, is terrified, but does not look away. Then something takes hold of her, she says to the lion, “I have lost my father and you have lost your cubs. I will be your cub.” The lion looks deep into Alya’s spirit, nods, says, “And I will be your father, and will always protect your front.” Then beside the lion is the lioness, who says to Alya, “And I will always protect your back.”

the gift …

A sleeping man dreams he sees the back of a young yogi meditating in the lotus position. Before the young yogi appear two cobras, raised up, hoods flared. One cobra is pure white, the other pure black. Both beautiful. The white cobra says to the young yogi, “We came to you once before because you were innocent, and you knew we brought a gift and you believed you had to choose one of us and you chose me.” The black cobra says, “We come before you again because you now are wise.” The yogi, now very advanced in years, weeps, chooses them both. The sleeping man, now an old man, awakens, crying.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com