As a Vietnam veteran, I know a little bit about war. I’m not guilt-ridden about my service, or the fact that I lethally vied with my counterpart in that unforgiving testing ground of human evolution. War is a reality as long as human kind feels separate from one another, and fearful because of it.

Visualizing peace and nurturing peace in one’s own heart is, of course, influential in lifting human consciousness to a more holistic view of self-identity, but rest assuredly, it will not, in and of itself, bring lasting peace on the planet. 

The realization of oneness, sameness among humans and other species cannot be transplanted into another’s consciousness. It can only be transmitted as an idea, an idealistic view, a contagious feeling, a psycho-spiritual energy that must find fertile ground to take root. Some soil is just not fecund for newly inspired thought. It currently lacks the proper nutrients of higher awareness to support other than its old mainstay crop of self-centered, prejudicial viewpoints and beliefs.

Make no mistake, here in America, self-proclaimed bastion of democracy, we have a “ruling class.” A class that clamors for small government, which amounts to non-regulation of Wall Street—whose excesses put the whole economy in the toilet—while putting the rest of the country in check. When it comes to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, this “royal class” wants to keep the power and wealth in their “capable” hands.

Can’t let the other 98% have a say over how democracy doles out opportunity.

Can’t let them collectively bargain over wages, education, social benefits, 

a clean environment, and social justice. If ever there was a fitting place for big government

it is reigning in the rights of the working class, the school teachers,

the blue-collar and white-collar working stiffs, who pay more than their fair share of taxes.

Where this majority of Americans is concerned, it is imperative that their social safety net be dismantled, 

so they can no longer siphon off the wealth of the nation to meet their irrelevant needs.

Libs and progressives went to sleep during the mid-term elections, jaded over the administrations perceived lack of zeal in pushing the progressive agenda, choosing not to vote or throwing away a majority in the House of Representatives for a “vote of conscience.” That embittered reactionary stunt sent the T-Party to Washington. Now what for an encore? 

How about stop whining and sniveling and realize this is a war for survival. Stop trying to conquer stupidity with reason. Stupid don’t reason. Have you not heard these Wall Street toadies on the Hill spewing their lockstep rhetoric, which, even by today’s standards of accepted idiocy, is ludicrously insane? Are you still trying to turn them with discourse? The only thing they understand is being voted in or out. Evoking the higher powers as a proxy ballot vote will not make Stupid go away (we won’t be rescued by angelic forces). 

As John Lennon reminded us in his song, A Working Class Hero, they …

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you’re so clever and classless and free

But you’re still peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be.

— Carl