Phil's Notebook

Beware

2007-12-29T15:52:00.000-05:00

The Religious militant can kill me but he cannot command me;
I do not follow him: I do not subscribe to his ideology
of discord, misery and strife.
His work is not the will of God,
his work is the whim of the Devil.

Beware the religious deceiver;
beware the one who uses Religious Faith
to manipulate followers in order to control them.
Beware the Religious Tyrant, the Religious Bigot,
the Religious Bully;
beware the one who uses Religious Faith
as a blunt instrument to bludgeon others into submission.
Faith under duress is false; Conversion by coercion is a lie.

Brother Martin

2007-12-29T15:38:00.000-05:00

Brother Martin was a man, an American and a Christian.
He was my countryman, my fellow citizen.
His crusade for Human Rights was two-fold;
-to lift the burden of bigotry from the shoulders of black people
-to lift the burden of hostility from the shoulders of white people.
His desire was to set us all free.
And the world was his house of worship,
and the people were his congregation,
and I believe that, had we met,
he would have been willing to speak to me,
that the color of my skin would not have been a barrier to him.
There were times when the burden of his work
weighed heavily upon him.
He had to rest but, he could not rest;
there was so much work for him to do.
And I wonder, were there times when all he really wanted
was to be a husband to his wife and a father to his children?
But, the Creater of us all needed him to be elsewhere.
And sadly, his work is not quite done.
For, although some progress has been made,
there is still anger and fear across the land.
I am sorry, Brother Martin,
our journey is not yet over.
We still have a way to go,
before we reach the promised land.

Reverse recrimination

2007-12-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

Why do you hate me?
Why do you look at me with anger in your eyes?
What have I done to you?
I have never owned slaves.
I have never set fire to a cross.
I have never lynched anyone.
And I have no desire to use the color of your skin against you.
When you see the color of my skin, do you see the enemy?
Please understand, I did not chose the color of my skin.
This is the color God gave me.
So why do we waste precious time with hostility?
You and I belong to humanity.
We belong to one people, one tribe,
and we are all in this together.

Listen!

2007-12-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

Women of the world, listen up!
Never, never, never confuse a man.
You confuse him, you lose him.
If you say something to him
that makes himfeel completely befuddled,
he will remain calm.
However, deep inside his brain,
he will be thinking,
"where did that come from?"
And the next thing you know,
he will be looking for the nearest exit.
And it will not matter to him if it is a door,
a window or a gaping whole in the wall.
If he can find it, he will take it!
And he will run, repeat, run for his life.

The Devil's Land

2007-12-29T15:14:00.000-05:00

What was once a Holy Land has become unholy.
What was once a land of faith Has become a land of Hate.
It is a land desecrated by hostility.
It is a land rendered unclean by blood spilled in acts of violence.
See the SelfProclaimed push aside their neighbors,
demolishing homes and uprooting crops.
See the displaced take guns and bombs firmly in hand
to maim and to murder.
And see that most vile monster-
-a creature of evil,
-a demon of darkness,
squatting on the hillside, smiling in grim satisfaction.
So devastating is the strife and suffering of the people
who live in constant suspicion and distrust of each other.
And see the creature glory in its victory;
hear the demon laugh heartily at the misery of all.

(June 2006)

The Cage

2007-12-29T14:39:00.000-05:00

I. Where art thou, O Isreal?

Isreal is not a tract of land;
it is not a political state with physical borders.
Isreal is an idea, a belief, a way of life.
Isreal is an intangible;
it is a matter of the mind and of the heart:
and wherever the Jew goes, so goes Isreal
and wherever the Jew lives, so lives Isreal.

II. What shall we call this hatred?

We have a word to describe the Gentile who hates the Jew;
the word is anti-semite.
What word shall we use to describe the Jew who hates the Gentile?
How shall we describe the Jewish Settler
who looks upon the Palestinian as a pestilence, an infestation, vermin?
How shall we describe the Jew who looks at the gentile
and sees something unclean?

III. Who Will Remember?

An old man sits alone on a stone embankment.
He looks out over the rolling landscape to the far horizon.
"I remember Palestine," he murmurs sadly to himself.
He remembers a time when the land belonged to his people;
he was young then and full of life.
Slowly his thoughts return to the present;
the land now belongs to a different people.
Carefully, he rises and walks in a shuffled gate
to a house that is not a home.
The years of longing weigh heavily upon him.
And then the day arrives when the old man dies.
He was known in life as a virtuous man,
and now he stands before The One Who Is All
and he shall enter into paradise.
But the old man shall not know peace,
for, although he is in paradise,
his people have been denied the right of return.
and when the last elders of his age have died,
who will remember Palestine?

IV. The Politics of Martyrdom

So, it has come to this;
you strap explosives to your chest,
then you go to a public place and set them off.
Very clever!
And you do this for the greater glory of your people
in their stuggle against the other.
Coward! Fool! Murderer!
It requires greater courage to live for your cause than to die for it!
And what of your friends and family?
What is the measure of their suffering?
Oh yes, there are those who will shout your name in ecstacy,
while some will grieve more quietly.
Officials of the ruling council say
that there is no tradition for such violent behavior in their society.
I have news for them; there is now.
And what of the other ? Oh, I see.
In your eyes, they are not quite human.
How convenient!
And so the cycle of fear continues;
arrogance and retaliation! Smugness and revenge!
But which of you is which?
Who is more afraid?
The Other? Or is it you?

(Spring 2003)

Bitter times

2007-12-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

The so called Holy Land is a playground of
encroachment and dislocation,
corruption and suicidal bombast.
Militant Palestinians long to drive the jews of Isreal into the sea;
Jewish Settles yearn to render Palestinians landless.

From the Arabian sea to the Bay of Bengal,
Hindus and muslims sneer at each others' temple sites
and other tracks of real estate.

In the northern corner of the emerald isle,
Christians squabble over who owns Christ.

In Bali, Paradise burns!
Residents and visitors experience a staggering blast and a furious fire.
Balinese weep with barely concealed rage.
Australians grieve and turn their heart wrenching stares
to the rest of the world and murmur,
"we are not so far away, are we?"

Argentina is broken and people appear on a tv game show to win a job.

China maintains a stranglehold on tibet
while citizens of Taiwan look on and wonder,
"are we next?"

See great big Russia pick on tiny little Chechnya.
Watch with horrified fascination through drunken blood shot eyes
as the Russsian Army marches a Swaggering dance step through
the blighted Chechen landscape.

A Saudi Prince has the benefit of a well rounded education;
he learns to play chess with one hand and poker with the other.

Years ago, in North Korea, the inmates took over the asylum.
Not much has changed over the years... or has it?

Iraq has a crazy man running the shop;
tricky coyote, crazy like a fox.

Does Democracy work in Pakistan?
Does Tyranny work in Pakistan?
What works in Pakistan?

Indonesia stands on uncertain ground with one foot in the west
and the other in the middle east.

What would Iran be like without Theocracy?

Sierra Leone is a land of limbless people and bloody red diamonds.

Zimbabwe turns racism on its head;
what happens when black governments terrorize white farmers?
Starvation!

Columbia smolders in Civil War;
Guns from the left and guns from the right:
Guns from the government and gunners running drugs.

What is Chili after Pinochet?
What is Peru after Fujimori?

Welcome to the United States of America,
land of the crooked corporate executive
and the gun toting sniper,
where political influence is for sale to the highest bidder;
it's Democracy of the Rich, by the Rich, for the Rich,
and everyone else be damned.
It doesn't matter which party you choose,
they're all the same about money.
The political philosophy of America today is...
if you don't have money, to hell with you.

What will become of Cuba after Fidel Castro?

Rwanda and Cambodia are bone yards.

Somalia is a broken landscape of
fractured jigsaw puzzle pieces
that don't fit together.

In Nigeria, a woman may be stoned to death
for the crime of adultery but, what happens to the man?

In the Afgan mountains, people dream of bountiful crops,
warm blankets and safe homes.
Children dream of school rooms with alphabets and arithmetics.
Women dream of opportunites and scenery
unobstructed by the grill of the birka.
Men dream love poems of soft hair, bright eyes and warm lips.
Be at peace, good people;
Dream of one thousand horsemen standing tall in their saddles:
Dream of one thousand horses running free on the highland plains.

Bosnia and Kosovo are pressure cookers.

Guatemala, Nicaraqua and El Salvador have old wounds and secrets.

(Nov.2002)

Sayings

2007-12-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

Faith under duress is false; Conversion by coercion is a lie.
Freedom of Religion requires freedom from coercion.
Being good is more important than feeling good; it is especially important
to be good when you feel bad.
There are needs of the mind and the heart that cannot be met by the
chronic pursuit of material wealth.
Your credit is only as good as your money.
The landfills of today are the mining sites of tomorrow.
Never give ammunition to the enemy.
Belief is not proof.
Democracy is difficult; Dictatorship is deadly.
Reckless is feckless.
There are at least two types of racism; one is based on a false sense of
superiority; another is based on a desire for revenge.
You don't need to be white to be a racist; you can have any color of skin and
learn to hate. You don't need to be a person of color to experience racism;
You can have skin as pale as white and feel the bitter sting of contempt.
Those who use violence to achieve desired goals only succeed in igniting and
perpetuating a bitter and seemingly endless cycle of retaliation and revenge;
Those who advocate the use of violence to obtain heaven only succeed in creating
a living hell here on earth.
The history of persecution is- convert or die, leave or die, or simply, die.
Your brain is between your ears, not between your legs.
The best time to make a choice is before you have sex, not after.
Marriage is not a panacea; any marriage is only as good as the two people in it.
The process of conception, pregnancy and birth is the easy part; the hard part
begins after your child is born and you must raise it.
To be truly pro-life is to be concerned about the condition of life at all stages of life,
not merely at the potential stage before birth.
Life is not about "acting black" or "acting white"; life is about being smart and doing right.
One consequence of extreme masculinity is foolhardiness.
Communism is socialism by force, not by choice.
I say this to the militants of the world; Stop the killing, stop the fighting: dismantle your guns,
dismantle your bombs: do not maim, do not murder: violence is failure: sin no more.

The Attack

2007-12-27T20:22:00.000-05:00

It was a day that began like other days,

with warm sunshine and a clear blue sky,

when hatred came to town;

A sound of engines low in the sky,

a crash of glass and steel,

a red orange burst of fire,

and thick black oily smoke.

Shock and disbelief as other crash landings occur near and far,

frantic phone calls of "goodbye" and "I love you",

the pounding of footsteps down staircases,

down, down and down,

run, run, get out while you can!

The sound of sirens on the streets below,

and who can believe this?

why is this happening?

Who would do such a thing?

The unbelieveable follows the unthinkable;

a lurch, a rumble, and down comes a towering mass followed by another.

Up comes a billowing gray cloud of dust

covering everything in every direction.

can't see, can't breathe, must run,

where am I going?

What is happening? Why? Tell me why!

They were the first to Arrive;

Fire fighters, police officers and ambulance attendants

moving steadily toward danger

"We must get these people out!"

they were heard to say,

and later, after the towers fell,

"we lost so many brothers that day."

Others came in greater numbers;

rescue workers, construction workers,

military personnel, doctors, nurses and volunteers

joined the ranks to treat the injured, mourn the dead,

and sift through the rubble of despair.

With their actions, the heroes say,

"We do this work because we can and because we must.

It is our duty and our honor to serve."

Girders are dismantled,

sections of buildings are carefully inspected,

workers search for survivors, remains, mementos.

the work becomes a plea and a prayer;

Be with me O Greater power,

stand with with me and work with me.

Put my hands to the work,

put my shoulders to the heavy load,

and when I am told to rest from my labors,

sit with me, hold my hand,

and tell that we will live through this,

that we will prevail.

Voices are heard in gathering crowds;

"where is daddy? when is mommy coming home?

can I talk to daddy in heaven on the telephone?"

"where is my partner, my lover, my friend?

where is the one who makes my life worth living?"

"where is my daughter? where is my son?

where is my hope for the future?"

How many times do you say the words "I love you" to a photograph?

How many times do say the words "I miss you"

in a place that feels achingly empty?

Celbrities and dignitaries stand on stages,

at podiums, before cameras and microphones

and say, "We must not forget."

Survivors, loved ones and workers on site

turn their somber faces with hard eyes

to the cameras and microphones

and say, "We cannot forget."

How shall we honor the missing and the dead?

A park? New Buildings?

A plaque mounted on a monument?

let us remember their faces and voices

in the hope that we, the living,

may honor their sacrifice

and learn by their example

to become a better people.

What is Love

2007-12-23T20:01:00.000-05:00

First ask what is love?
Love is warmth, tenderness and affection
Love is attention, loyalty and trust
Love is courage, decency and faith
Love is two hands held tenderly together
Love is the warmth of a tender embrace
Love is joy in times of gladness
Love is strength in times of hardship
Love is the acceptance of imperfection and limitation
Love is the acknowledgment of frailty and flaw
Life is God-given,
Love is life affirming
And, love is our only salvation
From ignorance, indifference and fear

Divide and Destroy

2007-12-23T19:59:00.000-05:00

Behold the lesson of social destruction
Handed down from generation to generation
Hate the other, Fear the other
Never trust the other
Always blame the other
Always stay with your own kind
This is the poison that permeates humanity

The Ostrich and the Invisible Man

2007-12-23T19:56:00.000-05:00

The Republican party needs to change its symbol
From the elephant to the ostrich
Republicans have their heads buried firmly in the ground
They see only what they want to see
And disregard the rest.

The Democratic party needs to change its symbol
From the donkey to the invisible man
Take away the fancy wrappings
And there is nothing else to see
The Democrats have nothing to offer.

A Party State of Mind

2007-12-23T19:54:00.000-05:00

If you tow the party line
Everything will be fine
But, if you dare to disagree
You will no longer be free

Some Advice for an Independent Woman

2007-12-23T19:53:00.000-05:00

Take a man to your heart if you wish
Take a man to your bed if you must
But, Don't marry him!
Don't do that to him
And don't do that to you

One China Policy

2007-12-23T19:52:00.001-05:00

I believe in one China
I believe in one Taiwan
I believe in one Tibet
Shall I go on?

Man and Woman

2007-12-23T19:51:00.000-05:00

A good man is a sturdy piece of furniture
A good woman is a work of fine art

The Difference

2007-12-23T19:50:00.000-05:00

Having sex is athletic
Making love is poetic
Having sex is mechanical
Making love is lyrical

Mammary

2007-12-23T19:49:00.000-05:00

These are the precious gems that sparkle and shine for me
These are the lucious fruits that comfort and nourish me

The Riddle

2007-12-23T19:48:00.000-05:00

Some Americans think of Iraq and wonder
Why are we there?
Some Iraqis look at Americans and wonder
Why are they here?

Birthday Wishes

2007-12-23T19:46:00.000-05:00

Here is a day for birthday wishes
Like, don't get stuck with the birthday dishes.
May your day be bright and cheerful
May no one give you an awful earful.
Yes, this rhyme is quite annoying
It could be worse, it could be cloying.
And so, in closing, I will say
May you have a happy day.

The One You Love

2007-12-23T19:45:00.001-05:00

You love who you love
And it doesn't matter if the one you love
Is short or tall, round or thin
Or what color hair, eyes or skin.

A Birthday Wish

2007-12-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

Once, I walked a path of green to a lake of shiny blue
I pondered this for a while;
You might like it too

An Ill Verse

2007-12-23T19:40:00.000-05:00

Roses are blue
Violets are red
Sorry to hear
You are sick in bed

The Flag

2007-12-23T19:30:00.000-05:00

I would never dream of burning the flag of any nation.
To burn the flag of any land would be an act of desecration.
I know that my society is not perfect;
We do have our problems here.
And yet, this land is my country;
This land is my home.
I do not burn your flag;
Please, do not burn mine.
(Spring, 2003)