Bipartisan Senate group proposes ‘no fly, no buy’ gun measure

[Eric the Green]

(12-25-2018, 10:02 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(12-24-2018, 12:21 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Having experienced an awakening myself, in the peak time of awakenings, I do not consider myself as saying that people need awakening as condescending. I know that I have awakened from views I held in the past, and it was the greatest moment of my life. I can only wish for it to happen for all. I can only wish for freedom and liberation for all people, for no-one is free until all are free in a universe to which I am connected it its entirety.

For many the Awakening is a disaster. There can be seriously-flawed awakenings. The Boom Awakening was a wonderful time for a teenager or young adult, but it was a time in which the real children got severely neglected and often exploited when the 'awakening' was sexual or involved drugs that induced parents to fail to pay attention to their children. If the Awakening is cultural (Boomers discovering early music, Mahler and Art Deco), then that is fine. LSD or "Jesus Freak" cults? No.  

Quote:Although I identify as an American, I am first a citizen of the world, and of the universe. I am influenced and supported by the American and European traditions, exoteric and esoteric, whether of the 18th century enlightenment, 19th century romantic and transcendentalist and 20th century modernist, and 15th and 16th century Renaissance and 17th-18th century Baroque, or of the Medieval and Ancient worlds and the pagan cultures, or of the venerable and wise Asian cultures and religions, and those of southern lands.

I never could quite get the esoteric stuff, and six years in northern California from my junior year in high school through college graduation (UC Berkeley) shaped me in ways that little else could except for perhaps more time there. Now that I am stranded, perhaps tor the rest or my life in a place where happiness depends upon fitting into peasant traditions of central Europe except for speaking English... I wish that I could have stayed there, and not only for the climate and scenery. The tolerable parts of Michigan are those that most remind me of northern California (the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior, and of course Ann Arbor). Those people who seem mired in peasant traditions do not listen to Bach or Chopin even if their ancestry suggests that they might.

Quote:I don't consider it "American" to erect walls to keep others out. Americans are all immigrants or close descendants thereof, and some preceded whites here by over ten thousand years. The statue of liberty spells out our creed in which we welcome the oppressed and hungry from other lands. It was never assumed that all criminals are welcome here; we have laws. But despite our history of racism, directed at some immigrants, whether imported by us or whether they came on their own, racism is not part of essential American values, and Americans are not presumed to be white. And also, it is distinctly anti-American to claim that Americans are Christians, or even religious at all. The First Amendment makes clear that our nation has no prescribed religion, and all are free to worship or not in the way they choose.

Many of those are fleeing some of the most dangerous communities not in war zone or places of 'ethnic cleansing' -- places that make Detroit, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans look safe by comparison. As for what is American -- what could be more American than taking refuge here from the Black Hundreds, Nazis, or Communism and deciding that one could practice Judaism? Or for that matter, fleeing some leader who decides that Islam is as that leader defines it only to practice Islam in America as one believes that Islam is something else?

Religious freedom is for us all or it is for none of us except by some freakish coincidence.

By the way:

This is in the background:

What a great work. Classical music has been an essential part of my life from my earliest days in this lifetime. I wrote a transcription of the Hallelujah Chorus for organ.

I of course got the esoteric stuff, and that was due to my awakening. Yes, it was great for our boomer generation, and there were so many of us involved in so many adventures that we didn't pay much attention to the younger children. Most of us put off having them, so it was the Silents who actually neglected them; they were just not much on our radar, generally speaking. I also know from the stories told to me by Silents, that sexual and violent abuse was much greater in the old days than in the Awakening years. 

The nuclear family was to many of us oppressive and irrelevant. Times changed as the 3T dawned and many boomers settled back into conventional ways and became more conservative. My awakening was not based on LSD, but I knew many for whom it was, so I can't knock it for those whose path it was to use as a way to expand consciousness and open doors of perception. 

Well said as usual about religious freedom. Many would extend that to using psychedelics as a sacrament and an opening to religious experience. For others like me it is not the right path though. A spiritual path is an essential part of a fulfilling life, in my opinion. The unexamined life is not worth living, as Socrates said.