Gun Nation: school children graveyard

  

April 11, 2023

I posted some things at my Facebook page yesterday and today about children suddenly dying, which can only be ascribed to the Devil.

Sloan Bashinsky

Me and some people I have known well had the exquisite experience of being dragooned and messed with and mangled and stood before many mirrors and reprogrammed and redirected and slapped around and embarrassed and picked up and carried and more of all of the above, and more, for a good while, and longer, so that we knew angels known in the Bible, and God and the Devil and demons exist, and Jesus, too, and whether or not intended, we became objective and subjective demonstrations of all of that, for atheists, who do not believe, and for agnostics, who don't know what to believe, and for believers, who hope what they believe is true, but they don't yet know for sure, because they have not had proof they cannot possibly ignore, and if they ever do get that proof, they will know for a fact that God cannot be dragooned and shrunk down to almost nothing by a, any or all religions, philosophies, or whatever, because God, by any name, is unknowable and unfathomable, yet more real than hitting your thumb with a hammer, the pain of which cannot be imagined ahead of time, or having your first orgasm, which cannot be pre-imagined, either, nor can parents' trauma after their child is murdered in school by a gun that has no evil intent, nor school children's terror of being shot dead by guns that mean them no harm.

My good friend in this next one is my tech buddy.

Sloan Bashinsky

A good friend's sister is a single parent of two young girls, 4 and 8. The 8-year-old told her mother the other day, during the covid shutdown, she was not allowed to go to school, and covid is not nearly as dangerous to school children as guns, so why does she have to go to school now?

Today, I found myself thinking about the Angel of Death taking the first-born of every Egyptian family, because the Pharaoh repeatedly ignored warnings from God to let Moses and the Jews leave Egypt. I wondered if the Angel of Death takes the first-born in every guns don't kill, people do American family, if that would get the 2nd Amendment freaks' attention?

This one generated some discussion with people on the left, who just don't seem to get it:

Sloan Bashinsky

So, I saw in the news the other day of children boycotting their school, because they did not feel safe from being gunned down and killed there.
I wonder what would happen if all children in America boycot their schools until they feel safe going to school? 
So much less hassle, and so much safer, to stay home and be taught virtually, like happened during covid shut down.

Meanwhile, what kind of parents today still send their children to school in America?

Charles

The kind that can’t afford child care? It sucks that schools aren’t safe. I went to catholic prep schools and military school . I know I wasn’t safe. But it’s rare that one is beaten to death. Getting beaten and broke is ok. 

No brainer gun sale laws would help a lot but there are so many assault weapons here that they can be had.

Sloan Bashinsky

Charles would you do, if you were a kid in grammar school? What would you do if you were that child's parents?

Charles

I began to answer this and thought it makes me as crazy to think what I’d do. So that’s moot. 

If my child or anyone’s was killed I’d be broken. 

What would you do?

Sloan Bashinsky

Moot? You would do nothing? How do you explain that to God? 

If I were a school child today, I sure hope I would stop attending school. I sure hope I would have other students who feel the same strongly enough to boycott our school until it is safe for us to go back there. That would require armed guards, with SWAT or military training and weapons. 

If I were a parent, I would keep my child out of school until such protection for my child is present, at my child's school.

In fact, my first child died of Sudden Infant Syndrome. It felt to me that he was murdered by something unseen. There is no way to imagine what your child dying is like. You can't imagine it, until you experience it. So don't even try to imagine it, or voice how you feel about someone else's child being murdered in school, unless your own child was murdered in school. 

Instead, come off the sidelines and start raising bloody hell. Piss off as many people as you can, like those Tennessee legislators did, who got kicked out of their legislatures by right wing loonies, who love their guns more than they love their own children, grandchildren, and God.

I hope God pays those right wing Tennessee loonies, and their ilk all over America, a personal visit, and yanks them up by the short hairs and they shit and piss themselves, and are 100 percent certain they will die and burn in hell forever, if they don't do all they can to protect school children from being murdered in their schools by terrorists the loonies have aided and abetted by refusing to protect school children in their schools.

Likewise, I hope God pays the same visit to parents of school children, and local government officials and law enforcement agencies, and school boards, and state government governors and legislators and law enforcement heads, and national law enforcement heads, and every member of Congress and the US Supreme Court, and President Joe Biden and Vice President former state prosecutor Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump. Why the hell isn't the US Military protecting American school children from being murdered by Americans in their schools?

Charles

I know I can’t understand what losing a child feels like.

It’s not possible to explain our challenges. Or compare them.

Sloan Bashinsky

Charles That is true, and I do not see any call for action from you that actually would protect children in school from being shot to death by guns that mean them no harm. Perhaps if the people who chant, "People, not guns, kill people", have their families visited by the Angel of Death and their first borns taken, that will cause them to station themselves in schools, armed to the teeth, protecting school children? 

 

Charles

I don’t have to prove anything. If you want to talk that would be better than this. You ask questions that I can’t answer here

Sloan Bashinsky

I see that, and I see you have lots of company. Schools, states, the national government have failed school children. Their schools are not safe. Yet they are sent to school anyway. The gun debate has failed to protect school children. Guns are everywhere, easy to get. The U. S. President already should have deployed his soldiers into American lower and middle public schools. The private/religious lower and middle schools already should have put hired armed mercenaries in their schools. Ditto, high schools. Because, nearly all parents have proven they will not keep their children at home to save them from guns that mean them no harm. Although they managed to keep their children at home during Covid lock down. 

Peggy

It's a horrible reality, Sloan, that not everyone can keep their children home. But one thing would help to solve the deadly problem - if Congress got a backbone collectively and passed the ban on assault weapons as President Biden has asked them to do. It wouldn't keep all guns off the street and out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them, but at least, a gun that doesn't fire hundreds of rounds a minute would give the children and teachers and others in the school a fighting chance till law enforcement got to the shooter, plus we need more law enforcement resource officers stationed at the schools while school is in session. inside and outside patrolling, and we need law enforcement to regularly patrol schools during off school hours to assure no one breaks in and hides until school begins the following day. I know some small villages and towns have that policy already, but more need to do it. 

 

Sloan Bashinsky

Well, we know the odds are zero of Congress developing backbone and bucking the National Rifle Association and its members' votes in national elections. We know the US Supreme Court has zero interest in requiring the Amendment 2 WELL REGULATED ARMED MILITIA. 

So, do you see any way for kids to be protected from being shot and killed in their schools, than for kids to protect themselves by refusing to go to school? -because it's crystal clear their parents, their schools, their local government and law enforcement, their state governors, legislators and national guards, their national Congress and President in Washington, D.C. and the U.S.. Military, which fights and patrols much of the planet, WILL NOT PROTECT AMERICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN from domestic terrorists, and are those terrorists accomplices in God's eyes, their religious proclamations and church attendance notwithstanding. 

 

Peggy

Poor and many middle class parents are in a bad situation, financially, Sloan, and they have to work and haven't the means to have someone else come in to be with their children, so except for more law enforcement presence in and around the schools I see no other answer. Having followed the money trail a few years ago on who is beholden to the NRA as you say, it isn't too likely Congress will pass the bill unless citizens band together and head for Washington to stage a sit in in the halls of Congress until they pass it.  

Sloan Bashinsky

I lay all of this on President Joe Biden, because it is crystal clear the states are not going protect their school children in their schools, so it fell on Biden to use the US military do it, and he didn't.

Elizabeth

The NRA took millions from Russia.

Sloan Bashinsky

I had not heard about that. The whole world is watching America and Americans basically do nothing to protect school children in America from being killed by military style guns, while the American right keeps chanting, "Guns, not people, kill people" The more American school children are killed, the more America becomes destabilized, and maybe after enough of that, President Biden, or whoever replaces him, will be under so much pressure that he, or she, orders the American military to protect school children in America from Americans, and perhaps that's Putin's goal. I haven't read of mass shootings in Russian schools, but Putin was charged by The World Court with kidnapping Ukrainian children and holding them hostage. 

 

Elizabeth

He is the Devil incarnate

Sloan Bashinsky

Elizabeth Yep. As is Donald Trump, and Amendment 2 Americans who chant, "Guns, not people, kill people," after each school shooting massacre.

Amendment 2, U.S. Constitution

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Where's the regulated militia required by Amendment 2?

The Ballad of Aloe, Myrrh and Linen: Jesus had a near-death experience on the cross and in the tomb

Today is Easter Sunday, when Jesus is said in the Gospels to have emerged from the tomb, alive, his wounds evident.

John 20:24-26 

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

In the latter 1980s, many people became interested in near-death experiences (NDE). People medically died, were pronounced dead, then they were not dead and were talking about having had a luminous experience. They were in the light, there were other beings, they were told things, they came back, and they were changed.

Around 1990, I read a book called, The Jesus Conspiracy, which  used this next passage from the New Testament to convince me that Jesus had a near death experience (NDE).

John 19:38-40

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

That's a heap and perhaps pricey amount of aloe and myrrh ointment to put on a dead man, who had said:

Luke 10:59:

Then He said to another man, “Follow Me.” The man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60ButJesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You,however, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

And then:

Matthew 27:59,60

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

Matthew 28:1-4 

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the big stone from the door, and sat on it.

The man rolled big the stone over the tomb entrance, but an angel rolled the big stone away.

The authors of The Jesus Conspiracy explained what I already knew, but had not considered: 

Aloe is a powerful wound healer, myrrh incites leukocytes to fight infection, and linen can be used as a sterile bandage. The known disciples of Jesus were in hiding, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus risked their lives by going to Pilate. Would they have done that if they believed Jesus already was dead?

In the fall of 1995, in my mother's church, St. Luke's, in Mountain Brook, Alabama, an esteemed visiting Episcopal theologian said something like:

When Jesus summoned several-days dead-Lazarus back from the dead, that was a resuscitation, whereas Jesus coming back from the dead, was a resurrection.  

I thought that was about the dumbest thing I had heard in a while.

The audience in the nave of St. Luke's were invited to speak, if we wished.

I stood and said that I'd had some training in herbs. Aloe is a powerful wound healer and myrrh incites white cells to fight infection. Linen can be used as a sterile bandage. 

The theologian said he didn't know how to answer me. 

One of the church clergy read out loud the end of the above passage: "This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs." 

The visiting theologian said that settled it, then.

Although perhaps not in the Episcopal universe, there was a lot of interest back then in reported near-death (NDE) experiences. 

Moreover, many people are convinced Jesus ended up in India, and this website favors that view: https://www.tombofjesus.info/

An aloe and myrrh article from that website:

Aloe and Myrrh

For thousands of years the herbs Aloe and Myrrh have held special relevance in the Christian world. Even modern day encyclopaedias mention the events of the Crucifixion of Jesus in their analysis of the herbs. These herbs are mentioned as being used in the burial of Jesus, for instance we find an entry for Myrrh stating:

“Myrrh is a constituent of perfumes and incense, and was highly prized in ancient times. Myrrh was one of the gifts of the Magi to the baby Jesus in the story told in the Gospel of Matthew. Myrrh was used as an incense in funerals and cremations, a fact alluded to in the Christmas carol We Three Kings” (www.Wikipedia.com – online encyclopedia)

Other sources outline how Aloe was thought to have been used during the embalming process of the Egyptians 1 What becomes interesting, however, is what is actually said about the medicinal properties of the herb. It is often cited that one of its famous occurrences is in the Gospel of John during the burial of Christ and this event may have shaped people’s perceived view of its uses. Upon examination of its documented properties all sources talk about its remarkable healing properties. It is accepted that even the Greeks and Romans as early as 300BC were aware of the healing properties of aloes:

“Aristotle was aware that the healing properties of aloe would be invaluable to soldiers wounded in battle and advised his student Alexander III (“the Great”) to conquer all lands that grew it, especially the island of Socotra off the coast of eastern Africa… Pedanius Dioscorides, a physician in the Roman army, mentioned medicinal aloes in his encyclopedic Greek herbal De Materia Medica (Approximately around 75 BC). ” 2

“The healing benefits of aloe were recognized in the ancient Indian, Chinese, Greek, and Roman civilizations. It is traditionally used to heal wounds, relieve itching and swelling, and is known for its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.” 3

Myrrh also is a herb that although often linked to Jesus and his burial was clearly recognised at the time as a healing agent. Aloe is talked about as having properties that help wounds heal and aid the reformation of skin, where as Myrrh is used more for anti inflammatory and anti bacterial reasons:

“In the past myrrh was used by many cultures for religious ceremonies and as a healing agent. It was mentioned in the Bible as a gift at the birth of Christ. The Egyptians believed in its healing powers: they burned it every day as part of their worshipping rituals. In the Greek culture when soldiers went to battle is was an essential part of their combat gear because of myrrhs extremely high antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. It was used to clean wounds and to prevent infection. It was also used to prevent the spread of gangrene in already infected parts of the body. ” 4

Embalming

Were the herbs not used for embalming the body of Jesus? From the sources seen so far the idea of embalming using aloe has only surfaced in the Egyptian world. It is thought that pharaohs were buried along with aloes. Was Jesus being embalmed? The problem occurs when Jewish burial practices are examined. Jewish burial involved simply washing the body and burying it, there was no embalming. For a body to be embalmed incisions needed to be made. This was understood by the people of the time, and for Jews to make such incisions would not be acceptable. Upon the advent of the passing away of Judah, one of the ancestors of modern day Jews, he is recorded as having stated:

“I die this day at the age of one hundred and nineteen years before your eyes. None shall bury me in a costly garment, nor shall ye cut my body to embalm it, but ye shall carry me to Hebron.” Having spoken these words, Judah sank into death.5

It seems unlikely that the aloes present were for embalming, also having myrrh there also in large quantities was not consistent with this hypothesis. If the viewpoint is taken that Jesus could possibly have still been alive at this point, and that Joseph of Arimithea and Nicodemus who were tending to him had knowledge of herbs, then the possible role of these herbs becomes clear.

Could they have been used to treat Jesus and to help him recover from his ordeal?

Modern Day Use

Today there is an increasing amount of usage of Aloes in products. Gillette series shaving foam now contains what the can calls “Soothing Aloes”, and a wide range of aloe-based creams and gels are available mainly for healing of the skin 6.

Perhaps the most definitive answer on the properties of aloes comes from a book written by medical experts. “Aloes: The Genus Aloe (Medicinal & Aromatic Plants S. – Industrial Profiles)” edited by Tom Reynolds represents the most details study yet in to this fascinating herb. Detailed analysis of the herb is presented and an entire part is devoted to exploring “therapeutic activity and includes chapters on aloe’s role in wound healing, skin cancer, and the immune system.7

Diane Gage has chosen to title her book on the subject “Aloe Vera: Nature’s Soothing Healer” and her text discusses the biological properties of aloe vera, explaining its power to heal the human body, and traces the ways the plant has been used throughout history.

Conclusion

Aloe and Myrrh appear to be ideal herbs for treating someone who had suffered an ordeal such as crucifixion. Their reported presence at the crucifixion does arouse some suspicion as to the events that followed Jesus’ removal from the cross.

Were they used simply for embalming or fragrant use as is traditionally understood, or were their excellent healing and antiseptic properties employed instead to help heal Jesus’ wounds and to aid his recovery from an ordeal he survived? 

Aloe's wound-healing function is well known.

What does science say about Myrrh?

National Library of Medicine

National Center for Biotechnology Information  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730704/

Effect of Commiphora molmol on leukocytes proliferation in relation to histological alterations before and during healing from injury

Al-Said A. Haffor⁎

Abstract   

 

Myrrh, Commiphora molmol has been used as anti-inflammatory and wound healing commercial product. Leukocyte count had been reliable indicator for clinicians to monitor progress of healing for their patients. We hypothesized that myrrh supplement participate in the activation of leukocyte proliferation pathway prior and post skin injury and gastric ulcer. The purpose of the present study was to examine long-term effect of myrrh on leukocytes proliferation before injury and during different stages of healing. Results showed that all types of leukocytes were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the myrrh-treated groups before and during healing. The pretreatment with myrrh offered a time-dependent rise in leukocytes proliferation. Microscopic examination of blood smear from myrrh-treated rats with skin injury, showed an elevated count of middle-sized lymphocytes and neutrophils that were characterized with well-defined nuclear lobules and rich-granules cytoplasm. Furthermore, the microscopic examinations of the spleen and lymph nodes of myrrh-treated rats with skin injury, showed an increased thickness of lymphatic sheath around the arterioles in the white pulp that was associated with high density of the medium-sized lymphocytes in the secondary lymphoid follicles in the lymph nodes with engorged sinusoids. As myrrh enhanced leukocytes proliferation before injury, it can be concluded that myrrh posse’s antigenic-driven responses and that indicated some foreignness or toxicity of some constituents of myrrh. Because myrrh helped to maintain the relative rise of leukocytes counts throughout healing period and that implied it activated late steps of both proliferation and differentiation pathways for all types of leukocytes during effective phase of the specific immune responses. 

What are luekocytes?

leu·ko·cyte

noun

PHYSIOLOGY

plural noun: leukocytes

1. a colorless cell that circulates in the blood and body fluids and is involved in counteracting foreign substances and disease; a white (blood) cell. There are several types, all amoeboid cells with a nucleus, including lymphocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, and macrophages.

Again, around 1990, I became convinced Jesus had a NDE. Not once since then did the angels on my case, one of whom is Jesus, tell me that I had it wrong.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo..com

 

Some considerations for people who were not in paradise with Jesus on Good Friday

Good Friday came yesterday, and left, without my giving it much thought, other than if Jesus in the Gospels were in America today, doing what he is reported in the Gospels to have done, he would be killed by Christians.

Meanwhile, some Easter considerations for people who were not in paradise with Jesus on Good Friday. 

Good? 

Really?

Reddit/Spirituality 

 

avisionofpeace

Does anyone else ever read all the stomach turning positivity and think yeah if you were living my life you wouldn't be so f****** positive all the time✨

Sorry but I'm fed up of pretending I'm ok and when I act all positive it's just a mask to hide how I really feel and that is that life is really f****** hard and sometimes I wish I could just die 

Puzzleheaded (me)

Engraved on my Jewish great grandfather's grave monument: "God's noblest creation is an honest man."

I lived in Santa Fe, NM 1/12 years, and in Boulder, Colorado 8 years. New Age and Eastern spirituality meccas. I met a lot of people into positive thinking as a way to get what they wanted and/or to just be more spiritual, and they were miserable inside, struggling just like everyone else.

I received extensive psycho-spiritual training, as a practice client and then I did it for other people. Everyone of them, me included, had all sorts of awful stuff stuck inside of them, which was influencing them in many ways. None of us got to the bottom of it. 

After angels took me over, they ushered me through healing of stuff I had no clue was inside of me, and some of the healing was unfathomably terrifying. Even after all of that, there was still plenty in me that was not exactly hunky dory. Yet, my perspective of just about everything had changed, and would continue changing. 

Perhaps the best self-help book I read was A Course In Miracles. The Course is no fun, according to people I knew who were doing it. It says nobody knows that is really going on, and it's pointless trying to figure it out. Just do the Course for a year, and emerge a different person, who can move forward, instead of staying stuck or going backward. 

In sum, whatever happens that disturbs us, punches our buttons, sit in it, burn in it, don't try to fix it. Do that for a year. Kinda reminds of Jesus in the Gospels: turn the other cheek; resist not one who does evil; do good to and pray for your enemies. Sort of.

I think the spiritual path is everybody for him/herself. It's between each person and God, or whatever people wish to call the unfathomable and the unknowable.

Geopold

Forced positivity doesn't work for someone suffering from shit life syndrome, agreed.

avisionofpeace

Please explain shit life syndrome.

Special-Hunter

it’s when your life is shit

avisionofpeace

As long as that's what it is and not some snarky comment about how my head is the problem and not my life.

Special-Hunter

honestly it could’ve been but i wouldn’t worry abt it. idk what’s going on in your life but i’ve never been bothered by the overly positive comments. it shows another pov for me. i could be in this deep dark place but i’ve got ppl who might’ve gone through similar experiences saying that life will get good again, this and that. i get it can get annoying tho when you’re reading them and you know you can’t feel those things atm.

avisionofpeace

Trust me if you were in my shoes you'd understand. Sometimes it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel when all you can see is darkness.

Special-Hunter

there are still things to find in the darkness just like there is in the light. i met my truest self in one of my deepest depressive episodes. the darkness is just trying to see what you’re made of. will you wade through till the light or settle for the shit life gave you

avisionofpeace

There is no light to be taken from the hell I'm going through. You have absolutely no idea.

Special-Hunter

then can i ask what the reason for your post was? bc i only would post if i was looking for help or some type of advice/guidance/helpful words but if there’s no solution for you then why post. why even keep on doing life? if it’s so bad?

Puzzleheaded

Of course he is looking for help, but how can we help someone if we are not walking in their moccasins and understand what that person is going through? But that's not what his post is about. It's about the "path of positive thinking" not working for him. 

 

So, someone has cancer. Postifive thinking is the way to deal with that? Someone's infant child died. Positive thinking is how to deal with that? The one way to deal with either is to get up each day and do what's dead in front of you. And, that's the way to deal with everything. How you deal with it, of course, is important. 

 

However, trying to mentally apply our thoughts, our will to a situation, to get an outcome we want, is witchcraft, isn't it? As opposed to, Not my will, but your will be done, O Lord.

avisionofpeace

Was hoping people could relate so I wouldn't feel so alone.

I stay alive because the very few people I have left in my life, I love too dearly to kill myself.

Puzzleheaded

You don't provide details of your angst, and I'm not asking for details. There is something called the dark night of the soul, and its big brother, the black night, both of which I experienced. The dark night was horrific, but was a cakewalk compared to the black night. Both come on their own and leave on their own, when they are ready, and trying to outmuscle either is futile. 

 

I don' know what your spiritual basics are, but there is something with you, which is beyond human comprehension, and you might wish to try leaning into it in your own way, and keep leaning into it, as you try to do your best to deal with what each day and night bring to you.

Facebook 

I imagine the Devil loves our mass shooting problem.

Once upon a time I practiced law.

US Constitution, Amendment 2

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the US Supreme Court and every other court in America and every American ignores "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State".

That's the predicate for, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Where's the regulated Militia?

The gun lovers want zero regulation of their love.

Amendment 14

Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

  
What about the right of school children to life (not be shot and killed at school)? 

 

Poetic Outlaws 

 

Fleet Visit

By: W.H. Auden 

 

The sailors come ashore

Out of their hollow ships,

Mild-looking middle-class boys

Who read the comic strips;

One baseball game is more

To them than fifty Troys.

They look a bit lost, set down

In this unamerican place

Where natives pass with laws

And futures of their own;

They are not here because

But only just-in-case.

The whore and ne’er-do-well

Who pester them with junk

In their grubby ways at least

Are serving the Social Beast;

They neither make nor sell —

No wonder they get drunk.

But the ships on the dazzling blue

Of the harbor actually gain

From having nothing to do;

Without a human will

To tell them whom to kill

Their structures are humane

And, far from looking lost,

Look as if they were meant

To be pure abstract design

By some master of pattern and line,

Certainly worth every cent

Of the millions they must have cost.

Sloan Bashinsky

A different sort of fleet visit

SHANGHAIED

A calling to serve carries its own wisdom,

which legitimates both the calling and the serving

so that the two are one.

Only the one called to serve

can know this wisdom,

and for some who are called

the knowing comes easily,

while for others the knowing is a fiery baptism.

Each calling is different,

and while some callings can be declined,

others cannot,

and those whose calling is without repentance

know they are in it for the duration of the calling,

and while others may try to persuade them out of it,

the calling for ones such as these always prevails;

thus is it advised to all called for keeps

that they view their calling as a blessing

even when it seems at times to be a curse,

and that they try to reconcile the loss of their captain status

and allow the Spirit of God to man the helm of their ship,

and be glad and willing crew members thereon,

knowing that all sailing ships of souls

need a crew as well as a captain

to maintain and navigate the ship through

seas of many tones, depths and flavors;

so consider each league sailed

as part of the overall journey

going to where the captain deigns to go

by using whatever winds and sea currents available

to navigate the ship to the experiences

this ship and crew need to have

in order to fulfill their calling and its wisdom

revealed by the journey of many leagues,

many known only to the ship and its crew,

all of whom come to know,

some sooner than others,

that once conscripted

there is no safe jumping ship.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com