GOD BLESS ED KOSTRO!

This guy is a Master, or Maestro, at planting seeds - seeds of THOUGHT!

His most recent poem today - LOST - instigated this reply from me. Please go read his poignant plea for humanity, and always RIGHT ON!

Does one hand really wash the other?

Is this Rationalization? or just Excusitis?

LET MIKEY DO IT!

© - 4/29/08 - Tom Hyland

ED - I saw this show also - certainly depressing. You ask WHY? Let me count the ways.

How about - approximately 60 years of bombardment of Billions upon Billions of Madison Avenue Advertisements? Commercials? Subliminal Suggestions? Corporate Greed that has PROGRAMMED us - DO THIS! DO THAT! FEAR THIS! FEAR THAT! TAKE ME! DRINK ME! EAT ME! GET FAT! GORGE! SPEND!

CARPE DIEM! SEIZE THE DAY! EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY FOR TOMORROW YE MAY DIE!

Two Generations of: Give It To Mikey! - Let Mikey Do It! I got’ta go to WORK!
Keep up with the Joneses! I NEED! I WANT! I MUST! I - I - I ... ME - ME - ME!

How about - the fact that - in those "good old days" - Mothers were truly FULL-TIME Mothers; not part-time, rushing, dog-eat-dog scramblers - dumping kids off somewhere else for 8-10 hours, for someone ELSE to DEAL with them - to instill VALUES - SURE! Instead of a 1-on-1 ratio, or 1 mom on 2 or 3 kids ratio - we delegated these responsibilities for the formative years onto 1 or 2 Nannies, AuPairs, or Baby-Sitters, to handle 5-10-15-20-25 small children - thus diluting the ratio drastically! Fa-Get-A-Bout QUALITY - we need QUANTITY!

How about - all those years of COVERT CHILD ABUSES? It was bad enough when Priests, and other members of "the Cloth" were EXPOSED (both figuratively and literally) for being PEDOPHILES - but even WORSE when PARENTS themselves were discovered: BEATING, ASSAULTING, SEXUALLY ABUSING, STARVING, And MURDERING THEIR OWN CHILDREN!

And we wonder WHY some complete stranger might be a tad WARY of getting involved?

And that's only when being presented with a face-to-face encounter with an innocent child! What about Street People? Homeless Vets? Anyone who looks like a LOSER, or a DIRT-BALL, or a DRUNK, or a DRUGGIE? Or a HO? KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! STAY AWAY! ARM'S LENGTH! DON'T INVADE MY SPACE!

Although we all know the beautiful Bible Story about The Good Samaritan, we also know the other Story about the Ten Lepers! AIDS! That is the NEW LEPROSY! Who wants to render FIRST AID (note the oxymoron therein) to someone who MIGHT have it? BLOOD - MOUTH-TO-MOUTH resuscitation - CPR - ???

NAH! LET MIKEY DO IT!

How about - IMMORALITY? BLATANT, IN-YOUR-FACE PORNOGRAPHY - A Nation of SEX, LUST, EROTICISM - FILTH - FOUL LANGUAGE - UNFAITHFULNESS - another bombardment of maybe only 30-40 years, or one generation? Movies - Television - Radio - Magazines - then the past 10-20 years - RAP - INTERNET PORN - Videos - CD's - DVD's - BOOTY CALL - LET IT ALL HANG OUT - TATTOOED CRACKS - and more!

GEE - am I a PRUDE, or what? Hell, anyone who has read any of my porno poems knows better than that! Now even I stand accused - GUILTY! Yeah, I'm HUMAN too!

How about general Morals - Values? A few may persist in a minority quantity, but in general, most have GONE TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET!

If our Government and Corporations had OVERTLY stated that "WE ARE GOING TO DESTROY THE FAMILY UNIT" - they could not have done a better job doing so!

OOPS! There I go again, with that "WE - THEY" syndrome BS! We all know that these problems of our world have nothing to do with the APATHY of the individual, right?

In closing, it would seem to me that yet another Bible reference would be apropos - the admonition - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!" has been replaced by the more SELFISH paraphrase - "Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you!"

A FINAL THOUGHT:

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

"If there is to be Peace - let it begin with me!"

Tom.

OOPS! SORRY! FORGOT!

"WE THE PEOPLE" -
ABOUT A QUARTER OF A MILLION, AT THE TIME -
ALLOWED NINE (9) ASS-I-NINE JUSTICES TO -
KILL G-O-D!