Advisors?

I’ve tried to stay away from politics in the last few weeks, but please indulge me.

When I see the influencers, the consultants, the confidents, the advisors to Mr. Trump, I shutter to the quick of my grasp.

Ailes, Giuliani, Christie.

The Future

What should the America of today and the future require from its current and future leaders? What are the non-partisan qualities of leadership we must demand and encourage in the actions and intellect of those we choose to lead?

To answer these questions we must each ask ourselves, what is in our own heart. Are we a nation of individuals where everyone is out for himself or herself, or do we still collectively embody the endemic truth and enthusiasm of democracy?

What so many fails to acknowledge is that on a spiritual level we are all one, and if one succeeds then so do all way beyond materialistic gain or intellectual prowess. The question each of us must answer is, are we willing to be the evidence of it?

America began as a nation with a noble destiny to show a divergent and burgeoning world that freedom, coupled with democracy, is a noble path to greatness and from that greatness comes benevolent power and global success.

On a subliminal level, America is also a profound alchemy to the chemistry of oneness, but the oneness is not the greatness of America. The diversity within the oneness is our greatness and the miracle of democracy.

Today, individual and collective fear abounds in our daily lives. Recent leadership and some still in positions of power see fear as a mechanism of partisan control. Plain and simple, it is the wrong way to govern or get elected.

America was not founded on fear. She was founded on inspiration, the desire for individual and collective freedom, neighbor helping neighbor and a belief that personal prayer and thankfulness is a daily practice and graceful right of liberty. Somehow we have misplaced that belief.

The foundation of America is layer after layer of noble ideals, sacrifice, hard work, and shared vision. Fear is something we embrace when we think we have something to lose, when in fact, fear holds nothing but emptiness and want. Courage, the antithesis of fear, holds the abundance we seek and the future for which we hope.

America’s leadership for this current election cycle must make a commitment to be of service, not just to serve.

America has not yet finished her revolutionary pledge to the integrity of an ideal. She is not done being a positive example of responsible, participatory government, nor is she finished being an inspiration to the oppressed of the world and imbuing perennial hope to all tyrannized citizenry.

The inner covenant of Democracy has always been conveyed through equal opportunity, unalienable rights endowed by our Creator and these powerful words: “…to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government…as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

These words are still valid and universal right now.

Unanswered Questions

I wonder if in that other place, the place where some believe we go after our life ends here, there is an awareness of what goes on in this earthly density? I wonder if those who have been wronged or falsely accused and died, or murdered, are angry at the wrong? Are the young who die angry at the ending of their life. Does anyone have a say when life ends? Do the spirits of the former earthly living feel temporal emotions?

Is there intellect and reasoning there? Is justice there or is it no longer important? Or is there a different kind of justice, an omniscience perhaps, where everything ever said or done is seen in a divine context and love is the only important emotion? Is it easy to forgive there, and is it a choice there as it is here?

I don’t know if there will ever be answers we all can accept through our egos and physical wants, but I do know these are questions that everyone that every lived have asked. I suspect that only a few divine souls came into earthly existence already knowing the answers.

The Wisdom of Charley Reese

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years. He is retired. He wrote this column for the Orlando Sentinel. It is appropriate today and every day.

545 PEOPLE

By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because the Congress created that problem. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.

No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines is in IRAQ, it’s because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation,” or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

The people, who are their bosses alone, should hold them, and them accountable.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

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