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Trinities, triunities, and triodities are visible throughout the observable universes. In the disciplinary practices of all sentient beings; facts, meanings, and values come to mind in ways that cause us to ask ourselves: “What is it?” – “What does that mean?” – “Is it, somehow worth something?”

Everyone understands that any country, charity, business, or religious institution needs to somehow differentiate itself in a world of competing ideas. But some religionists have chosen the question concerning a threefold truth, of whether or not the Trinity exists, as the hill they’re willing to die on.

Of course, much of the division is directly traceable to the paucity of human language together with conflicting interpretations of fragmentary records. How we define such terms as God, Divinity, and Deity plays a big part on just how we see the big picture. Much of the controversy also stems from our concept of unity. Before It was thought of as having personality, ancient adherents to Hinduism once referred to Deity with the couplet “It is.”

Because Deity is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing) and omnipresent (occupying everything), It and in some cases He, indwells and envelopes the physical, mindal, and spiritual – as well as the personal. Deity is commonly defined as the First Source of all that is Divine. Divinity is defined as the characteristic unifying and coordinating quality of Deity.

Now ask yourself: If you, as the one and only, wanted to have relationships with persons equal to yourself, how would you go about making that happen? If you knew everything there is to know, how would you share that knowledge together with some of the responsibilities that come with it? And, if you occupied all things, how would you go about creating elbow room? While it may be hard for us to imagine how the Original Person might somehow be constrained, The Deity-Father saw fit to liberate himself from the limitations of Infinity and managed to escape absolutism through the technique of trinitization. In this way Our Loving Creator differentiated and qualified himself through the process of delegation, co-ordination, and unification.

Because there is only one First Source and Center, Deity is characterized by absolute unity. Once others come into existence, so does the phenomena of three part harmony and unification while each original person retains unique personal capacities. They can each act personally and collectively. This gives rise to Unity relationships, Duality relationships, and Trinity relationships. Consider the mathematical triod. It is defined as three intervals with one shared point, a boundary point of each interval.

A round table top might represent unity. The relationship between the function of the table top and the function of its legs could be seen as a form of duality. Whereas the tripod intervals formed by the three legs function within what may be considered a perfectly balanced trinity relationship. In the final analysis, the table is no less of a table just because it has legs. Divine creativity is characterized by unity, this unity is the outward reflection of the absolute oneness of the duality of the Father-Son and the Trinity of the Father-Son-Spirit.

The unity remains while creation continues through co-ordinate performances in various groupings. These are characterized by the process of coordination and unification. While there is one Deity, there are three Divine personalizations of Deity. This is the original pattern, it is the nuclear family in a universe where the one inescapable and highly desirable inevitability is relationships.

Deity personalization is, in essence, bestowal. Jesus, as the bestowal Son said: “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. Divine personality is not self-centered. We all crave association. Parents share a wide variety of attributes and we are more than willing to share or give away anything and everything to our offspring, our posterity, our children.

How can Our Heavenly Father even be a father without children? Mothers and Fathers are characterized by the process of procreation. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are each unique persons, none is duplicate, each is original, all are united. While Deity is characterized by unity, the personalizations of Deity are unified first by nature and then by choice. The loving associations and personal relationships within one vast family of God is our true inspiration. 

Of course the table metaphor hardly seems complete without some idea of what might be situated on its circular top. Jesus spoke of something special that could be put on a stand so that it “gives light to all in the house”. It is the physical light, the intellectual insight, and the Spirit Luminosity that refreshes our souls. It is the candle power that is fueled by the love that indwells and envelopes us. That light and love is what motivates the First Source and the Center of all that is Divine.

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Way back in 2005, The New York Times used the expression “gesture politics” to describe the substitution of symbols and empty promises for policy. Today, gestures towards bipartisanship and voting integrity together with a feigned respect for the United States constitution ring hollow. The will of the electorate really hasn’t mattered to some politicians for a very long time. Sure, we occasionally witness a certain genuflection as an election draws near. But, the real focus for politics, and its practitioners, is always on the big, oftentimes dark, money.

In 1870, James Freeman Clarke said: “A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.” The Clark quote is especially striking in the midst of our country’s hyper-partisan election cycles, as so many politicians seem willing to betray many of the ideals they once touted, just to win re-election. Beyond politics, there is a higher plane where true statesmanship thrives. Within such an environment the cultivation of that entrepreneurial spirit, that can take our country from one level of attainment to the next, is encouraged and nurtured in accordance with the laws of fruitfulness. 

Some politicians have decided that, being in the game is just not worth it. They’ve asked themselves what their grandchildren will think of them once the kids have blown through the money gained through their forebear’s complicity in moving the country and the planet towards a dystopian future. Today, many Independent’s believe we have way too many politicians that are seemingly unable to even come down solidly in favor of democracy as opposed to autocracy.

Currently, principled compromise is rare as the modus-operandi of politics appears to have mutually assured destruction as its aim. This vengeful culture strikes at the heart of – and in many ways is calculated to cause damage to – the ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness that Americans have long sought to cultivate. The stark contrast between those patriots who would lay down their lives for their fellows, and those pretenders who have selfishly placed their own political ambitions above the welfare of the country and future generations is, at this juncture, hard for people of goodwill to ignore.

Fledgling democracies look on as principle has been sacrificed for political expediency by the most self-serving, It’s time for each of us to engage in some real soul searching. As groups inclined towards democracy, and once considered allies, were abandoned and uprooted to appease dictators, moral cowardice took center stage. As the politics of destruction is finally understood to be, first and foremost, about the tactics of distraction, it has dawned upon some of us that this may really be, for the USA at least, the last call for democracy.

We have been conditioned to think of ourselves as either liberal or conservative, left or right, Democrat or Republican, progressive or traditional, and socialist or capitalist. To those possessing a balanced intellect, it is clearly understood that, in actuality, we have all been hybridized to some extent. And, that the coercive labeling imposed upon us is simply the window dressing that obscures our view of the real battle that is raging outside.

The choice before us is between a democracy that will serve the highest and best interests of our children’s children or the featherbedded oligarchy that has, throughout history, sought to consign our progeny to conditions of peonage. In the United States, the first constitutional imperative is to advance the highest and best interests of “We the people” as we labor to “build a more perfect union.” To those holding some personal sense of superiority, democracy is instead seen as the domination of mediocrity. Such an ego-centric world view creates a definite preference for anything that will advantage they the few or they the rich. By this impetus it disadvantages everyone else and divides us accordingly, even on consensus issues.

The Us versus Them tribalism is directly attributable to divisions sown through the unmitigated and oft litigated selfishness of those placing their interests far above those of us they perceive as “the great unwashed.” Such a well advertised dysfunction is brought to us by malign actors intent on corroding the democratic underpinnings of our constitutional republic. Make no mistake, the oligarchy is the enemy of democracy. It always aims to wrest control from the demos, “we the people,” and instead vest it with the rich, “they the few.”

This gravamen is obscured by the dark money. It is evidenced by the suspect maps and moving polling places farther away from those that can least afford to travel or lose a day of work. It includes the politically motivated purging of voter rolls, and all the other forms of voter suppression and election subversion that seem to be in vogue. It finances the siloing and polarization of the press while it also impairs the First Amendment through its persistent attacks on the doctrine of net-neutrality.

From the tainted food supply to the high cost of disease care domestically; from the unrelenting attacks on education to the ritualized insanity of unwinnable wars abroad; each malady is directly attributable to the most self-serving of the few. This megalomanic oligarchy has been waging a deadly class warfare throughout history while, at the same time, they simultaneously accuse their targets of all things inexcusable, especially class warfare.

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Continuing our discussion with Ramona Johnson we focus on some practical considerations with respect to police reform.

Our takeaways from this segment underscore the fact that more creativity, research, and real world experience must be brought to bear before we will know precisely how best to dovetail the mental health practitioner’s response with the police response as they are required within any given public health and safety situation.

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The territory of northern Oklahoma had been established for the resettlement of Native Americans that had been subjected to a forced march along the Trail of Tears from the southeastern United States. Once admitted as a state in 1907, the newly created state legislature passed racial segregation laws as its first order of business. In 1916, Tulsa passed an ordinance that mandated residential segregation by forbidding Black or White people from residing on any block where three-fourths or more of the residents were members of the other race.

On May 31^st and June 1^st in 1921, mobs of White residents attacked African American residents and their businesses within the Greenwood District. Widely considered the worst incident of racial violence in American history, the attack destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the wealthy district known as “Black Wall Street”. The Tulsa-Greenwood race massacre claimed the lives of somewhere between 75 and 300 black Americans, hospitalized over 800, interned 6,000, and left about 10,000 homeless.

In the mid 1950s a variety of civil rights demonstrations made the news, Rosa Parks had refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus so that a white passenger could sit down. By the early 60s, the racial atmosphere in the USA was still highly charged although that decade would see the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, and The Fair Housing Act of 1968.

It was in this context that I, at the ripe old age of eleven and while firmly in possession of all the wisdom that implies, submitted the results of my sixth grade science experiment. I had injected permanent dyes into the eggs of several chickens that were just days away from hatching. When the colorful chicks finally emerged, there were blue ones and yellow ones and pink ones, and orange and purple ones. The birds began to huddle and, after a few hours had elapsed, they segregated themselves into distinct groups according to the color of their fur.

And so it was, with great pride that I showed off the chicks to my class while handing the paper, which described the methodology and the results of the “scientific finding,” to my teacher. To say that my teacher was displeased would be a gross understatement. And she never gave me the reasons for her somewhat muted reaction to my work.

In the decades since, I learned lessons of far greater importance than that concerning the arbitrariness of grading. First and foremost, to those who have offered, as some sort of justification for a variety of attitudes, the argument that segregation is only natural, I would respond by making it clear that, as conscientious beings, we should aspire to something higher.

We have all beheld the beauty of nature, but we have also witnessed its brutality. Randomized weather patterns, viscous animals, fiery volcanos, devastating earthquakes, and man’s inhumanity to man, all conspire to challenge us in ways that somehow foster spiritual growth. It may sometimes be hard to see the universe of universes as nurturing infrastructure, but that’s precisely what it is.

There is a reason the petals of a plant’s flower are a different color than its leaves. Some plants such as the sunflower, primrose, and pansy have what are, in effect, nectar guides that can only be seen in ultra-violet light. A pollinator, such as the honeybee, sees such a scintillating lure as a target yielding great sugary rewards. The process of extracting nectar also results in small particles being left behind that serve to fertilize the flower.

Once we’ve developed an appreciation for such beauty as well as our challenges, understanding that is commensurate with the intellectual, societal, and spiritual potential that Our Creator has given us, we can overcome the limitations of nature. As we work to ascend, from the purely animalistic plane of existence to an affinity for high spiritual values, we can leave behind all of the inherent and retrogressive animalistic tendencies.

Wars, including race wars are an animalistic reaction and symptomatic of a failure to adapt within a creation that is time-space conditioned. Our universe of things, meanings, and values unfolds as an inspiring example of creativity over time. All things, this side of Paradise, are characterized by progressive evolution and augmented by revelation. Irritations, ignorance, and willful misunderstandings are retardant factors while peace can only be realized through the civilized solution of all such problems and difficulties.

Jesus loved all of humanity, the animalistic and spiritual, rich and poor, high and low, black and white, educated and uneducated, cultured and uncultured, religious and irreligious, moral and immoral. He was not so much concerned with walls of brick and stone; but rather the walls of prejudice, self-righteousness, and hate. His desire was to see such walls crumble as he preached about the Father’s love for all of human kind. The Creator Son, as the Son of Man, proclaimed the salvation of God for all men and all women. When he gave us the command, to love one another as he loves us, he gave us the mission statement for his Church.

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Edmond Burke is best known for the quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” He was also the first and, some would say, the best advocate of conservatism. He held that rulers are only “trustees for the people” and, in describing the character of an effective leader he said: “the temper of the people amongst whom he presides ought therefore to be the first study of a Statesman.”

It may be useful to contrast and compare the way conservatism was defined, at the time of our nation’s founding, against what is sold as conservatism today. True conservatives understand the difference between that pride that comes before a fall and the kind exhibited by the person of true integrity, the one that puts the content of their character and the quality of their work above all else. Somewhere in the array of definitions for the term pride is the difference between motivating and incentivizing someone. 

Conservatives have long held that there is something to be admired and exhilarating about a forthright demeanor, a job well done. Much that is foundational to true conservatism is embodied in Burke’s portrayal of the “gentleman of fortune:” Burke said: “he did not take the ordinary Method of establishing Horse races and Assemblies, which do but encourage Drinking and Idleness but at a much smaller expense he introduced a Manufacture which, though not very considerable, employed the whole town, and in time made it opulent.”

Burke’s assessment of constitutional legitimacy was predicated, first and foremost, on its ability to resist tyranny. He believed claims of necessity and of new powers were an indication of tyranny. Many of today’s employees, that have to work long swing shifted hours for compensation that fails to keep pace with the cost of living, would likely agree.

The imperative, to resist slavery and tyranny, was underscored in his belief that a nation must guard against the tyranny of the majority. While today that may be defined as three wolves and a sheep deciding on dinner, in Burke’s day it was articulated as follows: “Aristotle observes that a democracy has many striking points of resemblance with a tyranny. Of this I am certain, that in a democracy the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppression upon the minority whenever strong divisions prevail in that kind of policy, as they often must . . .”

Burke also warned about excessive reliance on markets with the statement: “Your legislators, in everything new, are the very first who have founded a commonwealth on gaming . . .” Indeed, we have witnessed the folly of some, who have characterized themselves as “Constitutional Conservatives,” as they have prostituted their offices and systematically betrayed just about every aspect of such supposed reverence for constitutional principle.

Such tyrants resist any form of means testing for Social Security as they also try to kill it for future generations. They engage in coercive labeling, calling anyone advocating for any form of public assistance or government service, a “socialist.” They conflate socialism, marxism, and communism as if anyone in this entrepreneurial society is advancing the notion that the government should put the grabs on the means of production. For a nation supposedly dominated by Christian ideals, a pseudo-religious hucksterism has imposed a circumscribed world view that is self-serving, first and foremost.

An array of social programs, often designed to compensate for the absence of good corporate conduct, represents the least we can do in light of our failure to evolve in accordance with the true conservatism exemplified by Burke’s gentlemen of fortune. The faux conservative of today decries class warfare while thrusting it upon the masses. The ideological fault lines of days gone by have been blurred as the counterfeit, contorted conservatism of privilege looks down unsympathetically upon the struggling strata that rolls pennies to buy gas so they can work multiple jobs for poverty wages. The most selfish among us rise to occupy the commanding heights of the economy and object to any social program that might compensate workers for the parasitic behaviors of those employers that tamp down wages and benefits while simultaneously refusing to make any meaningful contribution to the public treasury.

In some European countries, monopolies have become nationalized companies in an effort to protect the population from unbridled monopoly power. In this respect, an emergent monopoly largely immune from anti-trust scrutiny may represent the most sure-footed path to a command economy. In our country, since the 1980s, Anti-Trust regulations are seldom enforced by politicians wholly owned and operated by monopolies.

Against a backdrop of morphing definitions for capitalism, and socialism, even the most casual conversations have become tedious. Other Western nations tend to define socialism not so much in economic terms, but in accordance with a given level of direct democracy operating within the context of what constitutes the greatest good for the general population. In his last ditch effort to dissuade the British Empire from going to war with the colonists, Burke argued: “To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself . . .” In short, Burke was a fervent advocate for the greatest good.

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Continuing our discussion about mental health and public policy with Ramona Johnson. Here we examine how resources for health care are allocated.

Let’s review: Mental illnesses are neuro-chemical, biological diseases, just like many other physical diseases. And yet, the resources allocated to address these conditions are inadequate, especially as compared to other ailments. The stigma around mental illness still exists. And, when those suffering from such brain disorders don’t seek treatment, they can’t be productive. For example, it’s extremely difficult to be a successful person when one is battling something as debilitating as depression.

There are effective treatments and medications for such disorders. Although the path forward must include de-stigmatizing mental illness, and allowing, even encouraging people to access the services that they need. Making sure such services are available and accessible must happen so that the person in need of treatment can get better and can return to work. Most people want to work.

And it’s clearly in the nation’s interest. Our country loses billions of dollars every year. When people don’t show up for work, overall productivity is diminished because when a person cannot face the day, they’re not there to pull their share of the load.

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There is a certain wisdom embodied in the old joke: “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans for the future.” Lest we get too uppity we should remember that whenever human beings, rely exclusively upon human ingenuity for advancing a cause, there is a humility lesson embedded in there somewhere.

When the moon rocket was built, it was named after a Roman god of the harvest. When it finally flew, the Moody Blues described it as “Blasting, billowing, bursting forth with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes. When a highly acclaimed architect designed a Unitarian church as a “temple to man,” the finished product was described by critics as a “Mayan handball court.” When highly pampered top-floor executives fancied themselves as somehow worth more than a thousand times what a productive shop-floor worker makes, someone finally shouted: “Humility lessons all around.”

The much vaunted talent proved to be not all that talented as they placed the economic proposition for entire nations on a plane of unreality. Their ignorance concerning the interdependence of economic sectors and nations was revealed as these so-called Masters of the Universe floundered. Even now, the same ostentatious and pretentious lifestyles advanced by short-sighted economists, industrialists and politicians may yet prove to be a major vulnerability, right out of a terrorist’s play-book, in the same way that all roads once led to the defeat of Rome.

There is an ancient proverb that states: “He who rules his own spirit is mightier than he who takes a city.” There is another advising us to: “Forget not that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Jesus knew these lessons well for even in his humble, temporal estate, he could see the end from the beginning. He would not be seduced by the sophistries of self-aggrandizement or dissuaded from the loyal service of loving God and man. If we are to avoid the pitfalls of a house divided, we must take these same lessons to heart while focusing on the Divine loyalties and the unified personality of Jesus.

There is a certain qualitative ring to this type of loyalty and an order to this process of unification. We could think of it the way teachers consider scope and sequence before offering a course of instruction. The fourth verse in the forty third chapter of Isaiah reads like the ABCs of faith: “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.”

If this were to be expressed in a way that defines the scope of interpersonal relationships within our contemporary human families, and then goes on to lay out certain conditions that favor growth, mom and dad might say: “You are very important to us. And, because you have learned to appreciate the way we love you, it has truly brought joy to this entire household. We are inclined to love you even more. And we are trusting you with even greater influence over our other children. They will prove to be a blessing to you just as you have been a blessing to us.”

In this way we honor our fathers and mothers. This is the way Christ works to enrich the household of many mansions. In the Isaiah curriculum we come to recognize that we are precious in God’s sight. We then move beyond recognition and begin to appreciate and reciprocate his love for us. We make it easier for him to love us even more by aligning our free will with the Divine will. We open deep channels that allow Him to bestow suitable blessings upon us. Only then can we truly become a blessing to others.

Successful interpersonal relationships are integrity centered relationships that are informed by altruistic core values. When our values include loyalty to Divine ideals, as they do with Jesus, personality unification is the inevitable result. Once we begin to trade temporal securities for spiritual sureties we initiate this ongoing process of perfection. The command: Be you perfect as I am perfect highlights a time / space conditioned, though realistic, goal.

That goal includes the full embrace of the Divine will. This perfection is not about that delusional pathology whereby some individuals have regarded themselves as infallible or equal to God. It is about recognizing that perfection hunger is itself a gift from God and that, within that context, we can attain perfection with respect to our first, best destiny, for that is also a gift from God.

Enthusiastic appreciation, confiding trust and undying hope are like the assurances of a budding relationship; the first fruits of the Spirit. They are seed bearing in that they yield a sincere fairness, a forgiving tolerance, and a courageous loyalty that demonstrates fidelity to the supreme values of God.

The desire to share this truth is exhibited through the kind of enlightened honesty, merciful ministry and unfailing goodness that can only come from God. The giving becomes less measured and even more meaningful through the unselfish devotion and loving service that produces an enduring peace. With Jesus we are favored with the best possible case study for understanding interpersonal and integral relationships, ones that inform as well as transform us.

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The United Nations currently lists 18 “Global Issues.” Among the many are poverty, hunger, water, and health. Poverty-stricken communities are not only disrespected, they are often disregarded due to their low socio-economic status. This occurs even within affluent countries. However, according to the World Food Program, countries with the highest level of food insecurity also have the highest outward migration of refugees.

One in nine people on our planet goes hungry each day while also suffering from the lasting effects of nutritional deficiencies. Restricted growth, and the deaths of about 3.1 million children under the age of five occur each year as a result of our collective neglect. For countries with the means, the failure to provide comprehensive healthcare to its citizens hobbles their economies as well as their overall competitiveness.

Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor. In the late twentieth century he noted “We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist.”

During an interview in 1981, with Norie Huddle, Fuller said: “Those in supreme power, politically and economically, aren’t yet convinced that our Planet Earth has anywhere nearly enough life support for all humanity. They assume it has to be either you or me, that there is not enough for both. Those with financial advantage reason that selfishness is necessary and fortify themselves even further.” Later in the same interview Fuller observed: “We can now take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than anybody has ever known. It does not have to be “you or me,” so selfishness is unnecessary and war is obsolete.”

And yet they persisted. For some there is never enough power or too much military hardware. The resources necessary to effectively address all of the global issues listed by the United Nations and the World Food Program are closely held by the inheritors, skimmers, and hoarders of wealth. They avoid and object to taxes while being the first to complain when their shiny new ride hits a pothole. They claim to abhor socialism while running their companies in ways that privatize gains while socializing expenses and losses.

They make extensive use of the nations roads, bridges, and airports while promoting a definition of infrastructure that encompasses only those things. Then, when given the opportunity to support such narrowly defined infrastructure, about 20% of Fortune 500 companies pay none of federal income tax that undergirds such structures. They underpay the workforce, forcing employees to seek housing, heating, and nutrition assistance while subjecting their public charges to conspicuous ridicule, scorn, and indignity.

Oligarchs have no loyalty to the United States or any other country. If the American farmer is too pricy, big-agri will clear new farmland by burning the Amazon forest along Brazilian Route 163, just as they did during the trade war with China in 2019. Ever since the United States Supreme Court made it legal for corporations to own and operate our elected representatives, the country has become less competitive not more.

Millions of our highly creative, potential entrepreneurs, are reluctant to venture out because their health care benefits are inextricably and unnecessarily linked to dead-end jobs where such benefits are routinely hollowed out or eliminated. There is wage stagnation coupled with worker uncertainty that prevails when unemployment rates are high or low.

On September 1, 1997, the federal minimum wage was $5.15 an hour where it remained for ten years. On July 24, 2009 the minimum wage reached $7.25 per hour where it remains today. This means that over the course of about one quarter of a century, the minimum wage increased by less than half the rate of inflation, about 29% whereas over the same amount of time, inflation resulted in a cumulative cost of living increase of over 66%.

Even as we enlarge our time-frame and scope beyond the minimum wage analysis, the Economic Policy Institute reports that, over the course of about forty years, Corporate CEO pay increased 940% while the typical worker’s pay increased only 12% during the same period. The penny-wise, pound-foolish, pseudo-conservatives holding elective office today, typically receive regular automatic pay raises to avoid public scrutiny.

There is no performance metric for such prevaricating politicians and they have actively harmed the nation by dampening the enthusiasm of our workforce. Grifters favor companies that operate in the most parasitic fashion. And, as they feign reverence for our constitutionally grounded democratic republic, they work to corrupt it at all levels. As long as the entrepreneurial executive takes a back seat to the custodial, as long as wealth without work together with greed is somehow fashionable, the drudgery experienced by the rest of us will undoubtedly continue. And, as Buckminster Fuller made clear in 1981, there is no excuse for it.

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In this segment, we continue our discussion with Ramona Johnson. This time focusing on mental health in light of public policy .

Among the points raised in this segment are the dynamics that play in the policy arena. There are economic considerations. For example, the person who is so depressed they become a no call no show at work, adversely affects our country’s overall competitiveness. Even so, the self-interest priorities held by certain politicians who view those with mental health challenges as non-voters, are not likely to change until the electorate makes it clear they must change.

And then there are the statistics: 25% of the American population at some point in their lifetime, will experience emotional, mental, or behavioral health problems while only 10% of the people who have mental health problems actually get the help they need in order to recover and go back to working, living, learning, socializing, doing all the things that we take for granted as part of our lives.

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<<AUDIO Part 1 (Ten Seconds): The Chair recognizes, , , Senator Smith>>

There was a time when, if you were to express an opinion in writing, it would likely be over your own signature. In fact, sending an unsigned letter was widely considered an act of cowardice. Today, those lacking the courage of their own convictions can express themselves through anonymous donations to political action committees. Under what is termed “traditional dictates of Senate courtesy,” a shifty member can even place a hold on legislation anonymously and two or more such members can make such a hold last indefinitely. Contrast that to the way the filibuster was once seen, almost universally, as an act of courage.

<<AUDIO Part 2 (Eleven Seconds): ’til doomsday>>

Yes, the filibuster was once painful. It was adversarial. And it was a way to reveal one’s true character. The person holding up a vote in the Senate would have to stand and be seen. Forty senators would have to be present for the arguments, the rhetoric, and the cookie recipes. It was not a back channel process for those lacking the kind of backbone required to be truly representative of one’s constituency. Today, dark money and under the table transactions rule in the USA.

The United States is now ranked by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit as a “flawed democracy.” The macroeconomic analysis of the EIU is seen by business leaders as a trustworthy way to determine how factors, such as the authenticity of any democracy, will impact strategic plans, business operations, and investment decisions. The vacillating coward caucus is making the United States far less attractive to the those astute observers currently vested, or planning to invest in, the de-facto global economy.

Our once constitutionally grounded democratic republic has become an embarrassment on the world stage. And it is due to the subterfuge of unprincipled senators, deceitful representatives, scofflaw justices, and compromised executives. No moral fiber is required of those who have aligned themselves with powerful incumbents. There is no perceived risk associated with making dark money contributions to political action committees that advance an agenda that people of conscience find truly abhorrent.

While retardant forces are sittin’ fat and happy, those looking towards a brighter future understand that every time an elected representative cowers before a tweet, an incoherent diatribe, or a person spewing the most self-serving BS, our republic falters and autocrats rise to say: “You see, democracy doesn’t work. That’s why you need a strong man like me.”

The long overdue sunshine that is brought to bear, as it exposes a wide variety of overpriced elected jellyfish, reveals stark contrasts when politicians are compared to steadfast statesman. Those who fervently advocate for government of, by, and for the people, one that is truly authentic and derives its just powers by the consent of the governed, are not dissuaded by smirks, shallow argument, or even death threats. While some prevaricating politicians hold a death grip on their cushy jobs, we should take note of great revelationary moments in history: One hundred and fifty years ago, James Freeman Clarke got it exactly right when he said: “A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.”

On June 1^st in 1950, a little known freshman Senator from Maine took to the senate floor and exhibited the kind of courage that has rarely been seen before or since. Margaret Chase Smith challenged the pack mentality of that day as she took on the virus then spread by Senator Joe McCarthy. In an era when freshman Senators were to be seen and not heard, Smith later recalled “This great psychological fear…spread to the Senate, where a considerable amount of mental paralysis and muteness set in for fear of offending McCarthy.” Constrained by senate decorum, Smith focused upon the tactics of McCarthyism as she asked her fellow Senators not to ride to political victory on the “Four Horsemen of Calumny –Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” The Hartford Courant later commented “This cool breeze of honesty from Maine can blow the whole miasma out of the nation’s soul.”

The FIBS acronym refers to this very same McCarthian tactic of leveraging Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear. It clearly encapsulates the ongoing and primary aims of those morally bankrupt political operatives that have effectively hypnotized and seized power over the emotionally charged and intellectually stunted factions within the US electorate. They are intent on sustaining that legacy of Lucifer that promotes the counterfeit, unbridled liberty that continues to rape, pillage, and plunder by any means possible. Rather than working to advance the planet towards its high destiny and an era of light and life, they are content with its ongoing orgy of darkness and death. 

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