Our Responsibility To Vote

I just received an email from Lee Carroll with a channeled message from Kryon. Some of you are familiar with Lee’s/Kryon’s work. For those not familiar, please check him out at Kryon.com.  Lee has been very supportive of my work and my book, “How the Bible became the Bible.” He has recommended it in his writings (Kryon Book 11, p.21) and his presentations. He spoke to our New Thought congregation in Saint Augustine, FL in March 2006 and December 2008. I consider him a mentor.

Lee’s email was titled: “Old Souls Need To Vote.” In it he discusses the old and new energies that are competing for us. He writes of Kryon’s channeling: “… Old souls are going to have a tendency not to vote in this election because you’re going to see old energy on both sides. And you’re going to look at it and you’re going to say, ‘Neither one really is what we want. Kryon, where’s the new energy? This is old stuff. They’re fighting, they’re angry, they’re calling each other names. You take a look at their meetings and all they do is shout and get angry and red faced.’”

Kryon goes on the admonish us to vote and to vote for whomever we believe will be the more transformative. He concludes: “Now dear ones, it’s important that you vote. Because if you simply say I don’t like what’s happening, you won’t be able to vote for what’s transformational. And you have this privilege and this right. The next time around it’s going to be different and the time after that is going to be startling.”

Earlier this year (July): I wrote about the importance of doing all I can do to encourage a sense of spiritual oneness in our society: “The constitutional idea of democratic freedom is based on my commitment to voluntarily relinquish some of my personal freedom in this or that area of my life in order to preserve my oneness in the social structure as a whole. I relinquish my personal freedom as I vote and abide by the will of the majority and then work to make that will work. The bumper sticker wisdom – Freedom Isn’t Free – is true and not just because of the military. It isn’t free because I work to give up my rights in many areas in order for my society to thrive. If it thrives, I can thrive. If it doesn’t, I can’t.

“I am not an island unto myself. I am just a small thread in the fabric of society. My work is to dedicate myself to improve the whole social structure. Much of that work requires me to subjugate myself to the health of the whole. My freedom comes, not when I become my own little island, but when my society grows and thrives. I work to make that happen, just as I work to make AA and ACIM a reality.”

Certainly Donald Trump is unfit and unprepared to don the mantle of global leadership required by the Office of the President of the United States of America. As well, Hillary Clinton has a lot to be desired on a personal level – although much of this is based on 20 years of Alt-Right conspiracy theorists who have made of wonderful living from keeping these rumors alive. So, I’ve concluded for me the issue of the personhood of these two candidates is not the basis on which to cast my vote. I will vote for the transformational (to quote Kryon) issues available to us.

The conservatives are proposing to restore the economic/social policies of the George W. Bush administration – lower taxes for the wealthy and the corporations, strengthening of the military (through more war or through more structuring), reducing regulations and the budgets of regulatory agencies, and hoping the business community will come to our collective rescue. Those policies, enacted by a Republican controlled House and Senate (for 6 or Bush’s 8 years) added almost $3 Trillion to our deficit, added only 5 million private sector jobs, almost bankrupted our nation, and plunged us into a horribly severe recession that became global. Why they want to go back and do more of that is beyond me.

The Democrat policies are more progressive and in line with what is emerging as the interconnected global economy in this Information Age. So, I will be voting for this agenda. It was begun with President Obama and has done significant things to improve our overall social structure in terms of inclusiveness, growth, and economic diversity. Fifteen million private sector jobs have been added, the stock market has doubled, we have reduced our wartime footprint, and we have resolved severe international crises with diplomacy rather than military might. And he has accomplished this – not with Congressional help – but in spite of the most obstructionist Congress (under Republican leadership) in history.

Kryon concludes his message by stating: What I have been saying “… are potentials, not fortune telling. The ripples of what is coming are being felt. And I say it again. That there is precedent on other planets that have gone through this and you’re right on schedule. Because what is happening here has happened there. It’s about light and dark. It’s about energy reacting to energy, and what happens and how it happens. It’s benevolent physics.”

As I’ve stated before, “I have to understand, on a visceral level, who the “Me” or “I” really is when I am speaking or thinking. The “I” that says to myself, “I really need a newer, more reliable car” is a different “I” than the one that says to my Holy Spirit, “I can’t do this anymore; help me perceive things the way You see them.”

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#2 Oct 2016

Copyright 2016

More Comments From My Trip To Cuba

I have received more comments from readers concerning my trip to Cuba. From the comments I could pretty much distinguish between those readers who were more politically progressive and those who were more conservative. The more progressive comments expressed a curiosity about specific aspects of the Cuban people – their life, culture, education, health, and arts. The more conservative concentrated their comments on Cuba’s system of government, especially the socialistic economic system, or on a general defense of capitalism to the point of stating that capitalism is biblical (thus Christian?) and socialism wasn’t.

I’ve heard it said there is a Christian basis for capitalism. But one can find biblical verses to support socialism as well. Often, I hear quoted as a biblical reference that supports capitalism, “God helps those who help themselves.” That quote is from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac not from the Bible.

There are really two major economic systems: socialism and capitalism. One of the “Aha” moments I had while in Cuba was recognition of the singular flaw in both of these major economic systems.

In the U.S. we do not have a true capitalistic system. We have a government-assisted form of capitalism just like Europe. The only difference is that our government-assisted capitalism is designed to support corporations and their shareholders. In Europe, their government-assisted capitalism is generally designed to protect the “little guy.”

But both socialism and capitalism have this one flaw: These are theoretical systems.  Everybody in the society has to subscribe to the system – and I mean everybody; every single person – for it to work. 

What happens when people don’t? They are beat down to a pulp. In fascist or communist governments with a socialistic form of economy, this “beating down” often takes the form of physical violence. Dissidents are threatened, hurt, imprisoned, and even killed. We in the USA and other major capitalistic countries like Spain and England have also done this when we dealt with colonists, with native Americans, with unions, and others. Governments were called in through their control of the National Guard to support the industrial community.  All you have to do is read about the miner/trucker/longshoremen strikes here or read Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol to see how society was skewed to support those fully engaged in the practice of their version of capitalism.

I remember a lady from France in Saint Augustine, where she would spend the winter, who could not understand why people would put up with “bad food” in grocery stores. The “good” food, i.e., organic, was very expensive or unavailable. In the course of her comments she made a poignant statement: “Here in the U.S. people seem to be afraid of big business and the government. In Europe big business and the government are afraid of the people.”

But generally, we “beat down” those who don’t participate fully in our economic systems by marginalizing, taxing, and controlling their behavior in inhumane ways to prevent their “drain” on our resources.  When I was a Street Minister in Trenton, NJ in the late 1960s I worked with these marginalized folks. People trying to use their incentive to add to their income, were taxed at a 100% rate! If the social worker found out that they were earning an additional $75 a month from taking in ironing, for example, they would have the family’s benefits cut by $75. Additionally, they would be blamed for “trying to cheat the system.” It was insane. Poor people often hold menial jobs and are dependent on public transportation, while factory jobs are moved to the outskirts of urban areas increasing transportation costs and travel time – both of which can become unbearable to someone earning the minimum wage.

Abortion restrictions apply mainly to those who are dependent on government assistance. Wealthier folks will find a way to take care of their daughters – they’ll send them away for an abortion or send them away to a “private school” to have their baby and give it up for adoption. The poor family simply has to take care of their child (or the teenager and her child) – further impeding the family’s attempt to climb out of their economic hole. But we don’t want to teach sex education or have contraception available. We want them to be forced into having their babies, and it’s the children who will suffer. Poor children will have improper diets and inadequate health care and do poorly in school. After all, it’s difficult for children to concentrate in school when they are hungry or ill. It is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy or a perfect circular argument: We don’t need to spend time and money on the poor because they only end up in menial jobs and are a “drain” on our economy. See! We haven’t spent money on them and, sure enough, they are not amounting to very much. Case proved. Case closed.

I’m reminded of a quote from the Code of Hammurabi. It was the source of the overriding legalistic system in Mesopotamia circa 2,000 BCE. This was the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Old Testament. Many of the practices we read about in Genesis stem from this Code of Law: The legal treatment of Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar who was Sarah’s handmaiden; Abraham’s treatment of Sarah as his sister rather than as his wife; the codes and practices of inheritance.  All these were from the Code of Hammurabi, which had as a major tenet: “The first duty of government is to protect the powerless from the powerful.”

We need to stop believing capitalism, as an economic system, is some form of a gift from God. It is what it is – an economic system. So is socialism. Socialism needs to adapt in order to honor, support and encourage the efforts of the individual. Capitalism needs to always be aware of and tempered by the practice of protecting the powerless from the powerful. When this is not done we end up with a system where 10% of the population owns more capital that the remaining 90%. That becomes a moral issue, and, if not addressed, will become the downfall of our democratic society, as we know it.

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#3 June 2015

Copyright 2015