Jack Spratt

120802 0838 slogans

Father Denis, my power of attorney, has said "it is impossible to disprove a negative." When I hear something that I can neither agree nor disagree with I fall into silent contemplation for days, years or an eternity seeking the knowing of what is implied but never hasten to expose my inferences. Since to do so is to fall into a collective monolog . . . merely He said, She said, a pissing contest, whose is the biggest, the longest, the greatest stream of urine.

In sadness I have avoided the media I most trust: National Public Radio since, as they must report the nattering's of politicians who seek power to bend us to their will & i for one am bored by slogans.

I would if I could debate God for us our freedoms to be fully informed of God's Will for us. Yet knowing God as poorly as I do am richer than any man or institution I might otherwise blindly parrot or follow unto the death of me or mankind collectively. That said i sense, think, intuit and feel God is our friend and no enemy.

I listen to the affairs of men (generic for persons as Angels without gender definition) and have concerns I attempt here to address. As I see our species slowly dying of excess. From which I will gladly leave this moment for I've had enough of life so defined . . . so defiled as the crucifixion by humiliation and torture the future of love impossible.

--Simón Bolívar
“The three biggest fools in the world have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote, and... me.”
"Those who have served the cause of the revolution have plowed the sea."

--sachineha
"As a child, I used to collect all the good quotes (kindness, friendship, right behavior quotes, etc) that I encountered in my routine life in my 'quotes diary'. The purpose was merely to find nice quotes at one place to write on cards that we used to give our friends on special events. But I now realize that my diary served a greater purpose. Writing and repetitive reading of those quotes instilled in me a sense of righteousness, kindness and justice which is the foundation step of my motivation to be kind all along my life."

--Stewart Udall
Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife, are in fact plans to protect man.
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

--Steward B. Johnson
Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves-to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today, to do our work with more force than ever before.

--Stevie Wonder 
We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
You can't base your life on other people's expectations.

--Stephen Sondheim
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I'm always happy when anything in any way is accepted.

--Stephen King (author-writer)
"Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
“I'm a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami.”
"Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home."
--The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990), 3rd paragraph of Chapter 42, Glen Bateman speaking
“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear.”
"The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool."
Ah. Oh yes. At last what I sought:

--Elie Wiesel
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
and the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.

"What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil."
“Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. we must protect it by changing the world.”

--Primo Levi
In countries and epochs in which communication is impeded, soon all other liberties wither; discussion dies by inanition, ignorance of the opinion of others becomes rampant, imposed opinions triumph. … Intolerance is inclined to censor, and censorship promotes ignorance of the arguments of others and thus intolerance itself: a rigid, vicious circle that is hard to break.

We who survived the Camps are not true witnesses. We are those who, through prevarication, skill or luck, never touched bottom. Those who have, and who have seen the face of the Gorgon, did not return, or returned wordless.

--Heraclitus
“There is nothing permanent except change.”
"Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing, for the known way is an impasse."

Please dear reader forgive my trespass and infliction of these closing thoughts:
When I hear the slogans of those who would farther destroy our nation I also hear the slogans of Al-Qaeda who parrot their patriotism to hypocrisy & bigotry . . . I am neither for God yet remain a conservator of love versus Hate & Fear, Inc.

© 2012 by Jack Spratt All Rights Reserved