Honesty . . .

https://www.reddit.com/r/AltFacts/comments/5q0jw5/george_

washington_and_the_cherry_tree/

(from LIES And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them; A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
by Al Franken)

". . . If you listen to a lot of conservatives . . . conservatives love America and liberals hate America. . . They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America in the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow.  Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world. . . When liberals look back on history, we see things we're proud of. And we also see some things, which might have seemed like good ideas at the time, bur turned out to be mistakes. And some things we did, well, they were just bad. That doesn't keep us from loving our country - it's part of loving our country. It's called honesty. . . "

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Good . . .

It's not polite to toot your own
But truth, at times, be told
An honesty about yourself
Won't be misunderstood
If you've worked hard
For all you have
And tried to help out others
When day is done
Don't be ashamed
To enjoy what you've discovered

The Good
©2018 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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Survey . . .

I am all for ending Citizens United and I don't mind taking a survey or signing a petition.  Heck, I might even contribute to such an effort when my personal finances allow. . .

BUT. . .

. . . When you want me to participate in a survey, MAKE IT A SURVEY!  Do NOT disguise your solicitation for a contribution as a SURVEY!  That’s called DISHONEST. It’s kind of like. . .

THE KOCH BROTHERS!!!

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Ah, Trust (again) . . .

. . . wonder WHY this continues to be an issue . . .


(from http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton/clinton-claim-small-donors-mostly-false-politifact-finds-n542621)
". . . Following (several recent) victories . . . Hillary Clinton thanked her supporters — especially those who have given small amounts of money to her campaign. . . "Keep contributing at hillaryclinton.com. Please, please join the 950,000 supporters who already have contributed, most less than $100, because our campaign depends on small donations for the majority of our support," Clinton said. . . Candidates like to play up their small-dollar donations because they are a sign of grass-roots strength. For instance, the Bernie Sanders campaign often talks up its large small-donor base and small average donations. . . And in fact, of all the 2016 candidates, Sanders has done the best in this regard: Through Jan. 31, Sanders raised $67 million from small donors, or a whopping 70 percent of all the money he took in from individuals, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent group that tracks campaign finance data. . . If one defines "the majority of our support" as dollars, then Clinton is wrong — small donations accounted for 17 percent of all of her individual donations, which is well short of a majority. In fact, the Campaign Finance Institute calculated that a clear majority of the funds Clinton had raised through Jan. 31 from individuals came from donors giving $2,700 — the legal maximum that anyone can give. . . We rate (Clinton's) statement Mostly False. . ."

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Church . . .

The church of music
Holds no ham and oyster suppers
We're all just deacons
With our boots upon the ground
Marching into mystery
In command but
Still can't quite see

The church of music
Won't require your weekly presence
You'll find it stays with you
No matter where you are
No dogmatic postulates
No demands on
Your fidelity

It can end the darkest night
Carry you through the hours
Know not if it’s wrong or right
Make no mistake
It’s divine
This church of mine

There are no fiery demons
In what I believe
It’s not for me to say
Who’s  what and where they go
All things flowing naturally
No controlling
Power over you or me

It can end the darkest night
Carry you through the hours
Know not if it’s wrong or right
Make no mistake
It’s divine
This church of mine

Stricly spiritual
No trace of any politics
Lurking in the mix or in the fabric
Only what is good
No room for hate and no deceit
Honesty
Sincerity will move you
And me

This church won’t interfere
With what you think or do
Your body and your mind are
Yours and yours alone
No one tells you what to say
No one criticizes
What you feel inside

It can heal the deepest wound
Shine a light in the darkness
Warm a chill in any room
Make no mistake
It’s divine
This church . . .
It can end the darkest night
Carry you through the hours
Know not if it’s wrong or right
Make no mistake
It’s divine
This church of mine


Church
©2016 Raymond M. Jozwiak, demo recording by Ray Jozwiak




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Lesson. . .

 . . . learned

When I was a kid, I had great respect for my elders.  I also had great respect for my contemporaries simply because that's what I was taught to do.  In fact, I may possibly have accorded more respect to many (old and young) than was actually necessary.  Not that I should have treated them badly.  It's just that I held some in much higher esteem than was warranted.

The older I got the more perspective I gained about sense, non-sense, bluster, honesty, empathy and integrity. I was, most certainly and understandably youth generally is, naive.  But I was also idealistic. I thought that a person could be taken at his word, and in that, I was wrong.  At least in some cases.

This lesson was driven home for me soon after college.  I had a temporary position at a local television station which I had hoped would become permanent.  My 'boss' in this position was one of the nicest, most honest, empathetic, sympathetic and virtuous individuals that I had (and have) ever met.  I believed that this is what a boss should be.  I also believed that this is what other bosses would be.  When the position failed to become permanent and I sought employment in another field, I quickly learned that my boss at the TV stations was a rare find, indeed.

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A story . . .

. . . that may never, and possibly should never, be told.  It's not a story of a long lost love newly found.  Nor is it the hear-wrenching tale of a family's struggle to survive or to cope with the loss or illness of one of its members.  Not a love story or an account of injustice righted or never righted.  It's actually a story of a fungus.

The story is also one about integrity, honesty, enthusiasm, communication, timing and ignorance.  It began innocently with curiosity at the sighting of an unusual fungal growth which produced a much larger physical manifestation than one normally encounters on a lawn, wood or otherwise green area. And since there was sincere doubt as to the true identity of the specimen, a curious (have I used the word innocent yet?) the layman which encountered it chose to physically probe or otherwise accost the specimen in question out of sheer curiosity. In so doing, the uninitiated soul, without malice or intention of destruction, put an abrupt end to the life of the initially-mentioned fungal being without realizing the full range of implications, mainly as the result of past encounters with such earthly phenomena, albeit of much smaller stature and girth, which were clearly, or practically obviously, not beneficial to humankind as either nourishment or ornamentation.

Not long after the above described encounter, the party involved discovers through casual and friendly discourse, that someone possesses an enthusiastic and affectionate fascination with the very fungus by whom the former was confronted the very day prior.  Turns out the specimen is (most likely) beneficial to humankind as nourishment and may also, in the individual matter of one's own subjective opinion, be perceived as quite beautiful. In fact, the subject of the confrontation was brought up by the very one that accosted the fungus. After conversationally mentioning the encounter with the object and it's particularly impressive dimensions, the culprit learned that the appearance of this particular species had been eagerly anticipated by another party close to the situation and that he would be absolutely thrilled to learn of its whereabouts so that it could be further nurtured and possibly soon harvested.

Due to the phrasing of the initial casual observation and impression, as well as the ardent response that revelation prompted, the culprit was at a loss to relate the details of the complete encounter, i.e. the disengaging of the life form from it root/base.  And that inability haunted the culprit for an indeterminate amount of time with its accompanying feelings of guilt, dishonesty, disingenuousness and lack of integrity.

In hindsight, the best clear, concise, honest way the culprit could and should have related the original thought would have been to include the part about disengaging the thing from its trunk at the very beginning.  But, after all is said and done, a simple and heartfelt apology, although the dastardly deed was done innocently, would certainly not have hurt a thing.

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Prayer and government. . .

. . . ???    I don't think so. . .

by John Shelby Spong
from http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9036126688324230916#editor/target=post;postID=6807412664444233283

"The intervening God who answers our intercessory prayers is a comfortable

fiction that is no longer worthy of our worship. This kind of honesty
scares people who want security not truth. I still think intercessory prayer
has a place in the Christian life but it would take a book just to unload
the distortions of the past and then to chart new definitions for the
future. Suffice it now to say that the God who is the Source of Life, the
Source of Love and the Ground of Being can only work through the life, the
love and the being of people like you and me. So you and I must intervene
wherever we can as God bearers. Our lives become our prayers. Prayer is not
quite like saying, "Now I lay me down to sleep."

I am amazed, for example, that Christian prayers seem to assume that God
enjoys being flattered. So we call God by a variety of titles: 'Almighty,'
'Most Gracious,' 'All Loving,' 'Most Merciful,' 'Creator of all things,'
etc. We also tell God in our prayers what we hope is true about God! "You
are more ready to hear than we to pray," or "You are more eager to forgive
than we deserve." This, we need to be reminded, is our human language, it is
not God's language. It is created out of our needs not out of God's needs.
The questions that we never ask are: "What does this language say about us?"
That is where our inquiry ought to focus. We are not describing God, even in
our prayers, we are defining our needs and giving voice to what we believe
are our experiences.

Does prayer do any good? Once again, that assumes that you want your prayers
to accomplish your will. Since that is not the purpose of prayer, I don't
see how one can proceed to answer such a question. I pray daily. I claim
nothing for it. I believe it opens me to God. There is nothing more than I
can say with confidence. Those who presume that they have answers are simply
delusional."

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