Stand Up! (American Revelation XIX, Two.)

Ira Hayes

Ira Hayes

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinking Indian
Or the marine that went to war
Gather 'round me people
There's a story I would tell
'Bout a brave young Indian
You should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix Valley
In Arizona land
Down the ditches a thousand years
The waters grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Til the white man stole their water rights
And the sparkling water stopped
Now, Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinking Indian
Or the marine that went to war.
~The Ballad of Ira Hayes, by Johnny Cash.

So, apparently "Conservatives" are still having a fucking meltdown over Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde asking Trump to show mercy to people.

As my Grandpa would say "Feel proud of yourselves yet, boys?" 

And he could make you feel real damn small with a short turn of phrase like that.

I'd strongly suggest that, at this point, the Bishop has been more useful to the cause of freedom here in America than most of the goddamn Democratic Party. I mean, come on, what the hell are you fuckers even doing??

Trying to keep your place in the Magical City does nothing. Lead, follow, or get the fuck out of the way.

I mean, shit, if you really are out of ideas, we were just given a good example to follow on Monday.

Seriously, "Conservatives" are so freaked out by this whole thing that they're just flat-out making shit up, trying to say that Empathy is a "Sin."

No, motherfucker, it isn't. Jesus said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto You." 

That's the entire basis of what Empathy is, in about the simplest sentence I can use to describe it. The only reason this is hard for anybody is that these fucking sociopaths DO NOT want to Obey the Truth.

I have 35 years out of my 51 years on this Earth in a church background, I'm not a theologian like Bishop Budde, I'm just a guy who was once an actual believer in Jesus, so I'll speak as just a guy who was that.

The Truth is simple. Man makes it complicated because he does not wish to obey. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy might does no good without Love Thy Neighbor.

There's nothing particularly Christian about this wannabe-Right-Wing-Hard-Ass Bullshit. In fact, Jesus Himself preached compassion, not Iron-handed harshness!

Hell, these assholes think they're going to "punish" us for the "Sin" of things like the Great Resignation, for daring to be Free and go get decent jobs.

Have you fucking "Conservatives" listened to yourselves lately??

I've actually studied a lot of religions, there really aren't any other than this kind of crap that preach "Hate thy neighbor" because after all, most religions have to attract people at some point.

That's not what this is. They're so removed from the source code or the start-point or the Save point that they've lost the plot completely and just started wandering around doing stupid shit. This is "Fuck You, I've Got Mine" sacralized. This bullshit takes the Cross of Jesus and turns it into nothing but a scary, leering Tiki at the edge of the camp, a symbol of a small and hateful Heathen god that has no power past whatever the Witch Doctor says to rile up the headhunters.

Bunga Bunga, Make Angry Sounds, Own The Libs, and they don't even know what the words mean anymore.

Fuck that. That wasn't what I was taught.

There they battled up Iwo Jima hill
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived
To walk back down again
And when the fight was over
And Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinking Indian
Or the marine that went to war
Ira Hayes returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored
Everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no home, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance?

~The Ballad of Ira Hayes, by Johnny Cash.

And neither was this:

These fucking people are trying to find a way to exclude Native Americans from Birthright Citizenship, never mind that Native Americans were given their citizenship in an act passed by Congress because so many Native American soldiers had served with distinction in World War I.

Nor only were Native Americans here first, but even after their defeats in the many wars fought against them by the White Man, they continued to serve this country!

I'm reminded of my buddy Dave, a Vietnam veteran who'd fought with the 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang valley. He'd enlisted in the US Army because, as he put it, in the time and place where he grew up he had three options, the Army, the bean field, or the slammer. And for the record, his last name is Latino because his Mom married a Mexican migrant worker simply because being perceived as Latino was, in the late 1940's and early 1950's in central Michigan, dirt, but still seen as a step up from being an "Indian." (His words at the time of that conversation.)

Serving his country, even though it literally was no longer his country was his only even possible ticket to a real job. And I'm serious, in Mount Pleasant, Michigan before 1964 if you were Native American there were certain parts of that city where you were not allowed to go without the possibility of being arrested. The Civil Rights Act wasn't just for Black people, yo.

We talked about this, and he specifically said that the Warrior Spirit...the namesake (in the Anishnaabe language) and ethic of the Ogitchedaw Warrior Society, the tribal veterans group of which he is Executive Officer, demanded of him and his brothers and sisters that they serve their land and their people, even though the land is technically no longer theirs!

You don't fuck with that sort of commitment and courage, and if America won't treat those people with proper respect, and as citizens, because of one man's hatred...you tell me, why shouldn't they rise up and take their land back. It's not like it'll be hard after us White Folks destroy ourselves with this Trump bullshit! And this hatred is all Trump! Seriously, most White people in my old hometown don't even notice Native folks unless they decide they want to go to the casino, and I saw that in a town where there's a reservation right next door, part of which is in city limits and the Tribe was, in fact, my employer.

I worked for, and with, those people. I'd served with a few Native folks back in the 1990's when I was in the Air Force...but I didn't know my Native military brothers and sisters like I did my co-workers that I worked with, some of them, for almost 20 years! One lady that I worked with for that amount of time, towards the end of my own time there, I trained her son to be a janitor in the kitchen...and he was, at the time, considering enlisting in the Army. He was also not the first young Native kid I worked with to consider such a choice, and many did in fact take that choice and swear their oath to this country and its Constitution..

By contrast, Trump, Elon, the Project 2025 crowd and MAGA in general hate America...or at least, America as it is or ever actually has been.

And their clear intent is to destroy not only America, but Christianity and any other damn thing they can get their hands on, to make this whole mess self-destruct as bloodily as possible so nobody notices they stole the cash register on their way out the goddamned door.

Elon isn't trying to cut two Trillion dollars from the federal budget because he cares about America...he wants that shit for himself. Same with Social Security. These fucking Ghouls prattle on about how "Those people should be in the workforce" What?? You think some 90-year-old person who can't get to the bathroom by themselves should be flipping burgers somewhere for minimum wage?? Fuck You!!

My Mom worked for 50 years, she built a successful business, then got tired of that and went back to school and became a social worker...rising to pretty much the top tier as a supervisor in her agency as well! Her not wanting to work now isn't from lack of ambition, she's old and tired and not in very good health compared to how she used to be. More to the point, she worked, she even has a pension and shit. She did everything right, according to what our society expects of people...it's her right to be retired if she wants to!

I'm a disabled veteran, and I still work, less because I want to than because I'd struggle just living on my disability and I'd probably be bored and spiral off into mental health issues again like I did when I didn't have a job for six months. But also, #1 I don't trust my government and how it's treated veterans (including me) in the past, and #2 I still want to contribute to things for as long as I can.

These fucking people don't understand that.

Hell, "Love Thy Neighbor" is too damn hard for them.

Now you can either stand up and fight against that or you can't, but if you can't, at least get out of the way of those of us who'll do it.

At this point, I believe we're very much looking at America not being here in the next couple of years. The United States is going to disintegrate under the pressure of all this Trump crap (Not to mention, oh, hey, Bird Flu pandemic clearly in the offing!) and we're going to have to forge some new things and then fight for that, too.

Good Lord, just fight for the right to be left alone by These Fucking People, and for people not to be subjected to monstrous horseshit and to expect responsible government in a crisis...of which there are several on the way, just sayin.'

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

These fuckers don't believe anybody but Billionaires should have what amounts to basic human rights, much less empathy or society or support.

Privilege isn't going to save you.

And if you don't stand up and fight back, they will come for you anyway. So, why make it easy for them?? I'm armed, bur more than that, I know things, and that's what they fear most of all. They fear well-remembered quotes from the Lord's Word more than a guy with a gun...more than a million people with guns.

Even if they win, we take some of them down with us, some of the others might go home and rethink their lives.

Because they can't kill the Truth, but isn't it better to keep that flame going now than hope somebody finds it in some dusty library after this bullshit collapses under its own incompetence and the weight of its errors??

You can't win if you don't fight. You cannot rely on the Better Angels of people who don't have any.

I reject their god of Hate, because I was taught that God is Love.

And so should you. 

If you can't, what the fuck are you even doing?

Stand up, or sit down, they're coming for us all anyway.

It's time to start preparing for that eventuality.

That spell it out for ya??

Слава Україна!

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning.

I turn this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
~Facing It, by Yusef Komunyakaa, US Army Veteran

One

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.  And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. ~Ronald Reagan

...

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:27