Feb 22 2008

Deliver Me

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Because of my frank criticism people sometimes question my love of country, but make no mistake, I do love this country.

Aside from a hideous past and a hideous present, what do we have to be ashamed of?  I do love my country.

I love her for her promise.  I love her for what she was meant to be.

I love that we as a people are finally ready for change.  I’m glad that we are making history and that once again we are inspired by a leader with poetry in his soul.  Some have said that words are cheap, and while that can be true, they can also mean everything.

The leaders we remember best were poetic souls who gave us little of greater importance than their uplifting and life-giving words.

JFK-End-War_2b

Mystic-Chords-of-Memory-SMALL-72dpi

Mighty-Stream-of-Justice_Luminous_SMALL

Inspiration matters.

That’s all I have to say.  I now present the brilliant Sarah Brightman.

Peace out!

Public-Service-Message-OPOL

53 comments

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    • OPOL on February 22, 2008 at 02:46
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  2. Somebody who likes to criticize the baser aspects of America gets tagged with that tired old “you’re not patriotic” meme as if love means one cannot strive to make things better. We love our kids but we call them on it when they go down the wrong path.

    • Alma on February 22, 2008 at 03:17
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    I think WE know who the real “Patriots” are.  And there sure do seem to be a lot of the real ones, right here at Docudharma.

    Peace.  ðŸ™‚

    • Edger on February 22, 2008 at 03:40
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    • Turkana on February 22, 2008 at 04:34
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    if either of the candidates had the guts to even use the word…

    • pfiore8 on February 22, 2008 at 04:45
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    inspiration matters… lovely.

  7. You speak for many of us OPOL.

    I love her for her promise.  I love her for what she was meant to be.

    I love that we as a people are finally ready for change.  I’m glad that we are making history and that once again we are inspired by a leader with poetry in his soul.

    The people are ready for change. Let’s hope we don’t get cheated out of it in the months to come.

  8. You speak for many of us OPOL.

    I love her for her promise.  I love her for what she was meant to be.

    I love that we as a people are finally ready for change.  I’m glad that we are making history and that once again we are inspired by a leader with poetry in his soul.

    The people are ready for change. Let’s hope we don’t get cheated out of it in the months to come.

    • Edger on February 22, 2008 at 05:13
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    I don’t really know why I thought of this when I saw your essay OPOL, but it seems to relate….

    This is an old song by Led Zeppelin from their Physical Graffiti album, called In The Light. I got curious and searched for it on youtube and found a great little video of cool images that someone had put together, with the song as the soundtrack:

    And if you feel that you can’t go on. and your will’s sinkin’ low

    Just believe and you can’t go wrong.

    In the light you will find the road. you will find the road

    Oh, did you ever believe that I could leave you, standing out in the cold

    I know how it feels ’cause I have slipped through to the very depths of my soul.

    I just wanna show what I’d give you it is from every bend in the road

    Now listen to me

    Oh, whoa-whoa, as I was and really would be for you, too, honey

    As you would for me, oh, I would share your load.

    Let me share your load. ooh, let me share, share your load

    And if you feel that you can’t go on

    In the light you will find the road

    Though the winds of change may blow around you, but that will always be so

    When love is pain it can devour you, if you are never alone

    I would share your load. I would share your load

    Baby, let me, oh, let me

    In the light

    Everybody needs the light.

    In the light, in the light, in the light

    Light, light, light, in the light

    Light, light, light, in the light, ooh, yeah

    Light, light, light, in the light

    It just seemed to fit here…. I don’t smoke pot anymore, but for those who still do it might make this even more trippy than it already is… 😉

    • KrisC on February 22, 2008 at 05:18
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    You are such an inspiration, what a great night of front page diaries, I so NEEDED this, thanks.  Hugs to you my friend!!!

    I’ll leave you a peace offering….Faithless with “Salva Mea!”



    Dido :

    How can I change the world if I can’t even change myself ?

    I cannot change the way I am ?

    I don’t know, I don’t know.

    Maxi Jazz :

    I wanna take a look at the world behind these eyes,

    Every nook, every cranny reorganise,

    Realise my face don’t fit the way I feel.

    What’s real ?

    I need a mirror to check my face is in place,

    Incase of upheaval, fundamental movement below,

    What’s really going on I wanna know,

    But yo, we don’t show on the outside, so slide.

    Just below my skin I’m screaming…

    I need a mirror for my spirit,

    Yeah, can you feel it ?

    When I get deep, wanna hear myself sleep,

    Not drowning, just tumbling around and around in the voices

    Like a crowd in my head so loud,

    I wonder what it’s like to be dead,

    I hope it’s quiet, noise in my head like a riot,

    Any remedy you have for me I’ll try it.

    Just below my skin I’m screaming…

    I’m going deep, so deep that I can’t sleep,

    The pills ain’t cheap but the bills are steep,

    So I lick up with a booze and a spliff,

    Try to snooze,

    But who’s dreaming, I ain’t, this is win or loose,

    Put down the drink, try not to think,

    Let it go, fundamental movement below,

    And yo, reality is dreaming,

    Just below my skin I’m screaming…

    The Sarah Brightman gave me chills….lovely!

  11. by words, by music and by images. And you are a master at that OPOL. Thanks!

  12. should never be considered less than a soul deep love and appreciation of what America the ideal stands for. Those who would disparage you and your views are young souls with a small bubble of perception. They don’t understand the tragedy of our times, they don’t see beyond the small words that others have put there for them to speak.

    And how do you answer them? With some of the greatest lines spoken in service to this country, and truly, to all humankind.

    I have thanked you for raising my ire when I have been down with despair, for bringing tears of joy to my eyes in the midst of these black days. And now I will thank you for a short and succinct essay that has brought one of the most warming threads ever.

    Don’t ever stop, please.

    And for everyone else on this thread, bless you all for your thoughts and community. I’m only three or four hours late for this thread, so it’s almost as if I made it in time for the conversation this time (better than a day or two late as I usually am, work consumes me). Regardless it does seem that the people here share my life values more than any community real or electric, anywhere else, and it is a joy to follow these threads even though I am too late to really participate.

  13. My, what a wonderful feeling.  And isn’t it inspiring?!

    Thanks OPOL, we all need this reminder.

  14. I love a few ideas that in massive fits of hypocrisy we sometimes claim as our ideals. I love a few people I know well. Loving a country is a silly, abstract notion invented by the scoundrels who take refuge in patriotism (and in America’s case, the war criminals who do likewise)

    • OPOL on February 22, 2008 at 13:48
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    turned in early.  Thanks everyone for reading and for your comments.  I appreciate them all and I appreciate each one of you.

    Peace!

    • documel on February 22, 2008 at 16:51
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    You can be in love, and be ashamed at the same time.  My patriotism makes me angry at the lost promises you’ve quoted.  As a country, we started with legalized slavery–and have progressed to extreme prejudice.  We have a president that smirks at torture and refuses to recognize his dead soldiers when they return.  We lie about renditions and sidestep the Bill of Rights.  We fear fear itself.

    The internet has given us a vent hole without power, the media has power but lacks truth and honor.  The only revolution we’ll ever have will have to be violent.  Not good–but inevitable.  China and friends have so much American paper that they can, and will, dictate our actions.  That will rankle even the monied leaders.  

    Bush has destroyed an awful lot in a very short time–but he had help from Republican stooges and Democratic weaklings.  The cities will burn again–it’s the only thing the powerful understand.  I am not as optimistic as most here, including OPOL.  I guess I’m just more pissed off and less blindly in love.

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