I wasn’t planning on making a Christmas video this year but felt prompted over the past few weeks given how difficult this year has been. I’m working with friend and several-time collaborator Kimberly StarKey aka The Rogue Pianist (and others) on a new piece in the vein of our previous Christmas videos Little Drummer Boy and Mary Did You Know.
This year’s video will look a little different, but we’re hoping to capture the same spirit within the crazy constraints of 2020. Watch for the premiere December 20th.
There was a garden where good things grew
carrots and lettuce and sunflowers to name a few
the sun would shine and the breeze would blow
the best thing was, they were free to grow
at the head of each row stood a cactus
those were good for keeping invaders away
as long they keep their distance
and kept their thorns at bay
about the same time every year
the garden was afflicted
pestilence would pervade
and many of the gardenites became sickened
one year the bugs brought a new virus
that was particularly petulant
and even more noxious
was the onslaught of the many conflicting messages
they must go to great lengths to stop the spread
most all of the gardenites agreed
yet some wondered about the cost
of the freedoms that they would cede
the cactuses took charge
and ordered a tarp to be pulled over the garden
to some, this was reassuring
to some, this was alarming
it kept out some of the bugs
but also blocked all the sunshine
they were told it was temporary
they could survive until… sometime
a few weeks turned into a few months
curves and flowers were flattened
while the gardenites quarreled about graphs and statistics
their stalks and their stems became blackened
strife and suspicion grew wild
branches of truth became twisted
they lost track of time and dignity
until one day the tarp was finally lifted
the garden looked quite different
it was not a pretty sight
countenances were darkened
without nutrients, without light
many were found infected and many had died
some from the bugs that still got in
but many more from the thorns
that were found in their sides
they were shriveled and gaunt
sure signs of famine
wilted and wanting and wishing
that ramifications had been fully examined
was it always for their own good
or more for the good of the whole
was the whole thing good
if it robbed so many of their soul
those that were left
might well have perished too
because growth was no longer a value
under the new form of garden rule
they would no longer debate
the graphs and best practices
because all that was left
were the commands of the cactuses
What if big brother tech existed
during the most significant incidents of history?
like when the iron curtain crumbled
and the powers fell
or when our own towers fell
or when we took off from this world
and walked on another one
or speaking of great leaps-
when Chairman Mao was leading his peeps into prosperity
never mind the bleeding and shrieks and the parody
of the “Greater good”
or when Stalin was offering his prospering economy
and sending his favorite patrons
on all expense paid vacations
or when the founders of this great nation authored independence
and made the Declaration
that would change the course of humanity
what if we had this clamor for censoring
when Einstein was pontificating
about the matter of energy
or when we learned that we could fight smallpox with cowpox
what would they say about this new way of
slaying our sicknesses?
what would they say to the dissidents of Hitler
how would they portray the resistance?
just picture…
Dr. King standing in boldness up on those steps
and delivering his magnum opus
only to be tagged with a notice
of misinformation
or when the conductors were planning and abetting passengers on clandestine passages to freedom
from station to liberating station
what steps would they have taken
to silence Shakespeare
would they have shadow-banned Langston Hughes
what would they do with Mozart
what if our purveyors of prudence had painted over
our masterpieces
what then, of prose, and music, and art
this isn’t a first
after Copernicus dared to assert that
the Earth was not the center of the universe
Galileo spent the final 10 years of his life
on house arrest because the fact checkers in the cathedral
didn’t want “misinformation” to make its way
to the people
what would big brother tech have done
if truth Himself stood before them
on the public square
would they allow him the floor
or crown him with thorns
what would have happened if…
listen Winston –
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
Trust us
we are infallible
and all-powerful
we are the ministers of wisdom
the monarchs of morality
we are the czars of correctness
the arbiters of ideology
yes, we just formed this ideology in the past 5 years but we’re absolutely sure it’s perfect
we know what’s best for you
In 2020 a virus swept across the Earth
it wasn’t novel
it wasn’t an accident
it put a lot of people in hospitals
but not quite in the way you think
it wasn’t Trump’s fault
it didn’t come from China
it came from a land called “Academia”
when the progeny of a long line of post modernists
stuck a pitchfork into the grave of Marxism
and lightning struck
just our luck
it crawled up out of its resting place
and immediately turned its mutated, murderous eyes on race
this resuscitated cancer began dismantling humanity
disrupting progress
and deconstructing everything it could find
see, this virus
infected minds
it was so insidious
that it took good people and twisted them to its purpose
it took every gesture, every greeting, every glance and insisted that we interpret them in the most hideous way possible
it was all the buzz
it taught that character didn’t count
but that melanin does
it coerced allegiance
to a new religion
where we are created in the image of grievance
original sin is your race
but there’s no grace
no salvation, no savior
it urged the congregation to execute justice now
because there’s no God to do it later
its prophets profited greatly
any apostates who wouldn’t bear false witness
were berated from a preset potpourri of platitudes
you know them well, I’ll spare you
it championed misanthropy
and rebranded any manner of critique as “fragility”
it reinvented the word racism
lest it be condemned by its own rhetoric
this infection
stigmatized freedom
it claimed that there’s no correct way to look at the world
but certainly
the correct way of looking at the world is that all white people are evil
the irony of subjective certainty
the gall of solving systemic racism by being systemically racist
some called themselves anti-racist and tried to escape it
but by definition, they couldn’t
and by deposition, they wouldn’t
it taught that 2+2 is…
just a hegemonic discourse
along with individuality, self-reliance, logic, and science
and made a mockery of hard work, family,
planning for the future, and private property
it flipped a narrative as easily as a coin
heads I win, tails you lose
guilty until proven guilty
it taught that both speech and silence were violence
both resistance and admittance were violations
what were we to make of
a theory so critical that every smile must be scrutinized
a theory so cynical that every conversation must be euthanized
every handshake must harbor hostility
how would this increase the probability of peace?
perhaps peace wasn’t the point
if white people can’t shed their whiteness
and whiteness is irredeemable and must be dismantled then
what exactly are you saying should happen to them?
this malady manufactured the masochism
necessary for the nihilism that it implored
it trumpeted tribalism
and required that we imbibe the only lie large enough to incite a global civil war
and to all of this
it didn’t have to answer
because shrewdly rooted into its nucleus was the tenet
that it can never be questioned
by rejecting introspection
it stressed the projection of evil onto something else
conveniently other than oneself
malevolence disguised as righteousness
it’s no more a mystery
this virus just
plagiarized every other sadly savage story in human history
–
it’s crazy
this far into this experiment of humankind
we’re still trying to figure out what kind of humans
we are
this skin…
while it’s great for regulating our body temperature
and protecting our insides from threats on our outsides
it was never meant to define us
all the sweat glands and blood vessels and nerve endings in the world
can’t hold a candle to one soul
superimposing a superficial coating on divinity
is like stuffing infinity into a shoebox
such a disservice
to find the line between good and evil you’re going to need to dig a lot deeper than the epidermis
whatever kind of humans we are
we are not mere avatars of our accumulated ancestry
we are not oppressed or oppressor
each one of us is a genetically and spiritually unique being
never before seen in the history of the world
each one of us is responsible exclusively for what we’ve done
and for what we become
my argument is not that no wrongs have ever been wrought
nor that we should ignore them
but some ideologies are wrong too
and it just doesn’t behoove us to absorb them
instead of forming our identities from the intersection of our oppressions
what if they were borne out of the intersection of our compassions?
I’m just asking
what if instead of presuming that “racism is present everywhere and always”
we presumed that graciousness is present everywhere and always
and did our part to make it so
what if instead of investing in new methods of systemic failure
we aimed for systemic amelioration
and instead of assessing collective blame we recognized individual worth
looking for the best in someone is so much better than looking for the worst
there’s a reason you’ve never shopped for a box of 64 same colors
we are beautiful, diverse
sticks of pigmented wax
begging to make masterpieces
that
is the significance of what we learn when
instead of scrutinizing smiles, we return them
my argument is not that racism doesn’t exist
but that truth does
I’ve learned truth from black men and black women
and from West Europeans and East Indians and North Canadians and South Africans
and from every letter of the acronym
because truth is independent from the minds that decipher it
and the lips that deliver it
we must be willing to live for it
we must remain liberal enough to conserve the rights of free speech, free ideas, and freedom to criticize those ideas in the pursuit of progress, equality, justice, mercy, and goodness
as the human race
we need to understand how much we really have to lose
the good news about THIS pandemic is that
we know the cause
and we know the cure
we just have to choose
I wrote this back when Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were climbing in the polls. They lost steam and COVID hit, so this went on the back burner. But I think the message is still relevant and always will be, because “free stuff vs freedom” is a fundamental human dichotomy.
To tackle it we have to deal in both reality and ideology. The reality is that people need help, and regardless of how they got into the circumstance of needing help, it’s our duty to help if we can. We should also continuously teach the value of work and the principles of self-sufficiency. Government dependence is a last resort to be avoided if at all possible. The drain it puts on the human spirit is far worse than the drain it puts on taxpayers. So much more meaning and growth await us through our endeavors of effort, independence, and responsibility.
it’s that time again
when politicians are admonishing us
with all the promises of free stuff
“relieving” us of our burdens
meanwhile burdening us with the belief
that our debts are theirs to levy
as if the purchasing of votes with the assurance of unearned benefits hasn’t collapsed enough empires already
as if it hasn’t robbed countless millions of their earnings
and countless millions more of their dignity
as if it hasn’t continuously crushed what was once honorable independence
into despondent pieces of groveling acquiescence
history can’t even count the abuses
perhaps it’s counterintuitive
that when you relieve someone of responsibility
you’re really just relieving them of self-respect
keeping them reliant on checks
from a government that just wants to keep them in check
it’s how the handouts on the clockwork
the saddest day of a person’s life is when he or she sits down to
figure out how to not work
how to turn potential into procrastination
how to turn ambition into ambivalence
it’s a principle that’s as old as time, or at least as old as fish
and those who fish for them
what’s better than granting free fish of course
is fashioning a fisherman
what’s better than welfare
is well-being
what’s better than well-meaning
is empowering by the ethos of self-achieving
and self-care
we don’t start equal in assets or advantages
but work is where the great equalizer of circumstances is
therein lies the therapy for our troubles
the antidote for our anguish
the fortitude that forges our families
only in the crucibles of pursuit can we cook up character
and the sweat of our brow is the sweetest ingredient
never let them lead you into believing that
pandering under the pretense of philanthropy
isn’t actually advocating for the eradication of your freedom
don’t ever settle for mediocrity
no champion of sport or business or science or humanities has ever made it
by languishing in the belly of bureaucracy
no dormancy has ever bolstered performance, see
no idleness has ever triumphed
no stupor of soul has ever won a super bowl
no slothfulness has ever begotten thoughtfulness
I could go on but just
let me say this to close
what we earn is so much more valuable than what we think we are owed those politicians they’ll be long gone by the time entitlement takes its toll don’t let them take your mind, your muscle, your spirit don’t let them curtail your capacity don’t let them demean you never let them deceive you into believing that anything is free what they’re taking will always be greater than what they’re giving yeah you better believe – the government owes you life and liberty but it does not owe you a living
a “hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck” bemoaned CNN after the latest election campaign debacle they couldn’t believe the disrespect and incivility so much misinformation so much hate
#notmypresident-ial debate
but was it really so bizarre?
does the fabrication of facts, the talking over each other
and past each other, trying to miscast each other
really only happen on the national debate stage?
or did it all look eerily familiar to your facebook page?
are Donald Trump and Joe Biden
the only two characters in this comedy of caricatures?
are we appalled by our choices for this election
or are we appalled because our choices look like our reflection?
–
it’s like we’ve gathered to repair a beloved but battered
and broken-down house
one side’s got the hammers
the other’s got the nails
but we’re too busy arguing over which is better suited for the job
or pointing out that hammers were once used incorrectly
or that nails are appalling because they could possibly be stepped on
cable news steps in and says
“wait a minute – you know
those hammers, those nails
those could really do some damage
you could use them to impale…
each other”
The New York Times steps in and says you know…
that old house isn’t worth saving anyway
Twitter and YouTube step in
and show the people with the hammers more stories about the nastiness of nails
and shows those with the nails the ghastliness of hammers
and now both sides stammer
and doubt what they’re made for
and made of
they hesitate to not only to build
but to denounce the carnage that they’re capable of
and we just stand here face to face
with our blunt and pointy weapons
that were supposed to be tools
threatening each other’s destruction
neglecting the construction that we came here for
in the first place
–
we the people are an eagle
navigating the fragile flight of humanity
with a noble and distinguished head of freedom
and a body of inalienable rights
the problem is not which wing you’re on
it’s how far out there you are
the further we go from the body
is the further we get from empathy
and peace and equality
as the feathers get thinner we become more and more tribal
the solutions we see become more and more genocidal
the far left is no less dangerous than the far right
too much chaos is no better than too much order
too much night is no more bearable than too much day
if you cut off one wing
you veer straight into a mountain of tyranny
either way
for every Hitler there’s a Stalin
that’s why every picture from where freedom has fallen
looks exactly the same
I know we have different ideas about what this house should look like
but without an agreed upon foundation and people willing work on it
it’s just a mansion in our imagination
unattached to a body, the wings of an eagle are just hollow bones in a free fall
and the sky is just a hopeless hallucination
without compromise
we are broken birds
hapless hammers
and good for nothing nails
I know I’ve mixed my metaphors here
what I’m trying to make clear
is that all supposedly invincible
civilizations have fallen for a lot less
I hope this train wreck lights a dumpster fire under us
that scorches all the pre-programmed proclivities
that’ve been stuck in our underbrush
and we can finally see clearly enough
to find our way out
of this hot mess
By 
