Without Emotions to Balance Our Fears

 We shall use our thoughts carelessly.

We can imagine all sorts of cruel scandals invented by The Other. There's enough there to keep us talking for days. We have a long history from the Romans to the Nazi's.

IS THE WORLD DISINTEGRATING INTO CHAOS?

Or is it just the human mind?

Is our world becoming chaos? Or is it our human ego?

Does it seem like the news is a tight list of everything going wrong? Can humans be blamed for this? Are we so fixated on our own interests, we cannot understand the world any more?

The newspapers write as though climate change, weather, the economy, the planets, are all here to serve us? 

Or, is it, those who follow astronomy and the daily news, see the world as something we own and therefore it should take care of us?

Are we trapped in a patriarchal pattern where man is king and everything else is here to serve him?

What are our major fears? 

Can we do anything about climate change? Can we teach our brothers and sisters to be unpaid servants to our interests?

Do we cry? Or have our tears dried up?

Does fear or anxiety make things worse? Do we harm our world by worrying about ourselves?

Is it possible for humanity to see the universe as something we should take care of?

Mostly when life on this planet seems to be in danger it's when humanity gets so scared it seeks to kill everything to "prove"  we are in charge?

Can we put our arms around everyone we meet to help bring the anxiety level down?

How can love save us when most people are not in our town?

Tumbler Ridge and the disintegration of justice - thoughts from Robert Reich

from  Robert Reich

 Friends,

The neofascist takeover of America — of our cities, universities, media, law firms, museums, civil service, and public prosecutors who tried to hold Trump and Trump’s vigilantes accountable to the law — worsens by the day. 

As I’ve traveled across the country peddling my book, trying to explain how this catastrophe happened and what we can do about it, I’ve found many Americans in shock and outrage.

“How could it have happened so fast?” they ask. I explain that it actually occurred slowly and incrementally over many years until our entire political-economic system became so fragile that a sociopathic demagogue could bring much of it down. 

Some people I speak with are still in denial and disbelief. “It’s not as bad as the press makes it out to be,” they say. I tell them that it is — even worse. 

Others are in despair — heartbroken and immobilized. “Nothing can be done,” they say. I tell them that hopelessness plays into the hands of Trump and his lackeys who want us to think that the game is over and they’ve won. But we can’t let them. The stakes are too high. Hopelessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

Rest assured. The seeds of Trump’s destruction have already been sown. He will overreach. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of birthright citizenship, for example, and Trump announces he’s not bound by the Supreme Court, the uproar will be deafening. 

Or the economy will bite him in the butt. As prices continue to rise and job growth continues to slow — due to Trump’s bonkers import taxes (tariffs), his attempt to take over the Fed, and his attacks on immigrants — America will fall into the dread trap of “stagflation”: stagnation and inflation. After months of this, his base is likely to turn on him — remember, many voted for him because he promised to bring prices down — and he and his Republican lackeys in Congress will be toast in the 2026 midterms. 

Or his brazen corruption will do him in (he’s personally raking in hundreds of millions from crypto, for example). Or Putin will do him in (if Ukraine falls to Russia or an emboldened Russia strikes Lithuania). Or the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. 

He no longer has any truth-tellers to advise him — he has purged all of them. And a president who’s flying blind, without anyone around him to tell him he’s about to crash, will inevitably crash. Many innocent people will likely suffer “collateral” damage. But at least the nation will see him for who he is and consign him to the dustbin of history. 

None of this argues for complacency. We must continue to fight — demonstrate, phone your representatives and senators, boycott corporations and organizations that are caving in to tyranny, protect the vulnerable, make good trouble. 

But please do not fall into denial or despair, and don’t let anyone else.

 

TUMBLER RIDGE

Something terrible happened at this school.  Humans feel they are not safe. Not protected by agreements of civilization. 

There's a sense, a feeling, that those given the task of living in peace and fairness have forgotten what their world needs.

It's like being naked in a cold winter storm.

We need a sense of civilization. Agreements to live and let live. But we are being brainwashed to believe this world is full of excitement, prizes, opportunities to prove our worth by what we can buy.

It's a terrible lie. We need to feel that others care. Not everyone but some of us. Why?

Because we were raised on the notion that we are lovable, useful and smart.

You are worthy of protection, peace and love.

or read this from 

TUMBLER RIDGE

 

This is the bleak reality. We forgot something important and can't remember what that was. It's gone now. Was it justice? Was it wealth for all?

What is wealth? Wealth for all to find contentment instead of contempt? Emphasis on life rather than jewels? 

Acceptance on diversity. Respect for humans and animals? 

I think wealth is HOME!

This planet is home for all who live here and who will be born.

This means we have lost 'SUPERIORITY'.

TUMBLER RIDGE. We Know What The Problem Is!

It's us. People. 

We have been trained to see ourselves as consumers. 

We buy what we want or do without. 

Pride comes in what we purchase.

A new handbag.

A diamond ring.

Something new to impress our friends

who think we don't deserve it.

We fume inside the mind

which otherwise could invent

something new

-- now that would be rewarding.

Something like

diamond rings or bracelets

something to spend our savings on

to make us look rich.

We have made it!

Forget clothes, food or furniture

no matter how much they cost

we can't wear them

and pretend we forgot we had them.

If we had servants 

we would forget them.

To forget we are rich

that is status.

Janet Vickers

TUMBLER RIDGE Jailbreak by Kim Goldberg

 

for the love of breaking hearts and sleepless nights I will select a few poems submitted under this title as your submission to create a poem under this name "TUMBLER RIDGE"

Jailbreak

 

the robots are so good now

they can manipulate scissors

they stand at their stations and snip

each // word // from the // story

stripping all context, this is

The Great Decluttering

dawn of our brave new age where everything 

can be anything and anything 

everything, the words drift 

to the immaculate 

floor (for robots are not dirty)

where they spontaneously 

resequence into poems about locks and 

shrikes, seamless horizons and keys

the jailbreak 

is now complete

~ Kim Goldberg

Thank you Nanaimo poet Kim Goldberg