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Democracy, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.

quote by Stuart Chase
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Democracy v Liberty

The fathers of democracy.
The ancient Greek philosophers
were dependent on slavery.

Which leaves me in a quandary.
How can it be democracy
to have such inequality?

I think democracy should be
a universal human right.
Though it is not quite obviously.

An ideal to aspire to.
Which one day might be possible.
The time has come now to review.

What we mean by democracy.
If everybody has their say.
It might well lead to anarchy.

When we elect a government.
The will of the majority
is what they’re meant to represent..

But it seems they rarely do.
This cannot be democracy.
the many are ruled by the few.

Who gain control quite legally
because their wealth allows them to
encouraged by our apathy.

The systems open to abuse
The people have the power to
insist on change; which we don’t use.

We vote or not just as we choose.
A facet of democracy.
I would be hesitant to lose.

It seems to me democracy
is something which we can’t achieve
and still retain our liberty.

There is no way that I can see
which will be fair to everyone.
I must admit despondently.

A partial democracy
is what we have and will retain

[...] Read more

poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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In democracy

In democracy
Writ of the peole runs.
In democracy
Repesentatives should not
Called leaders.
In democracy
Representatives must not
Act as er whim.
In democracy
Representative should not
Show dictatorial style.
In democracy
Representative should not have
Arrogance of power.
In democracy
Treachery and
Ruthless decisions
Not good.
In democracy
The representatives
Should be sensitives
Towards sensitive issues.

poem by Gajanan Mishra
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Natures Democracy

Democracy is at America's heart
You lead while others follow
And your citizens bear the right to be free
With freedom comes responsibility
And democracy applies
To all who inhabit this earth?

Within this premise Kyoto speaks
That sound which disturbs
The majority of a wider democracy

You deny their global solution
In favour of the American way
But there are whispers in the wind
For nature too believes in democracy
And nature will make the agreement for you

For she is omnipotent to unleash her democracy
You can deny your future, but your ghosts will deny you
This way of life feeds a changing climate
And nature gathers her strength
Slowly rising to give you her answer

The Hurricane and tornado
The desert and the flood
Her democracy to maintain
A balance within the hemispheres

Your Freedom is a noble thing
For freedom lies in every beast.
But only humans carry the burden of democracy
This is the price we pay for freedom

But freedom is worthless
When all you grow is destroyed
When all you build is washed away
When all that you hold dear is taken without mercy

Look over the fence America
Look beyond your borders
Look at your planet
And look at this baby born
For it may never grow up to remember you

poem by Steven Cooke
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Kahlo-Christ Conjunctions - Sacrificed Flesh, Broken Bread, Emmaus Vision

[The curious or, better, interested reader may view the images alluded to in this essay at this website: http: //falconwarren.blogspot.com/2011/01/kahlo-christ- conjunctions-sacrificed.html]

Kahlo Strophes

As with love, also the bellows.

Calavera*, the Future stands
hand to mouth, fingers to forehead
unfolding before still instatic shapes.
Hold desperately to frames before
these quaking perceptions.

She could not stop there,
had to flare out, dry paint,
and the dryer flesh peel down
to bone, a sexless esqueleto**,
skull no longer mustached,
a calavera, nothing more,
curved calcium reliant forever
upon canvas, what is congealed
there to fan and burn,
a 'cauda pavonis'***.

- the author, from the text below

*Skull
**Skeleton
***Peacock's Tail (an image in alchemy) .

'Poetry such as this attempts not just a new syntax of the word. Its revolution is aimed at the syntax of the mind itself. Its structuring of experience is purposive, not dreamlike. We are dealing with a self-induced, or naturally or mysteriously come by, creative state from which two of the most fundamental human activities diverge, the aesthetic and the mystic act. The creative matrix is the same in both, and it is that state of being that is most peculiarly and characteristically human, as the resulting aesthetic and mystic experience is the purist form of human act. There is a great deal of overlapping, today especially, when art is all the religion most people have and when they demand of it experiences that few people of the past demanded of religion....A visionary poem is not a vision. The religious experience is necessitated and ultimate.' - Kenneth Rexroth, World Outside the Window, the Selected Essays of Kenneth Rexroth, pg.255-256

Rexroth's words are pertinent to the images used in this essay, Kahlo's painting above is visionary, Grunewald's are religious, and several photos are both, and all are 'aimed at the syntax of the mind itself.. Its restructuring of experience is purposive, not dreamlike.' The images included in this essay, which is more a prose poem than regular prose, are meant to convey equally or more, at least as as much as, the words in their incantatory formations which may induce entrance into 'imaginal' spaces where word and image meet in a practical magic, inspire a felt understanding and perhaps gain a view or actual entrance into what ecstatic poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, calls 'the Greater Relation.'

I've decided to publish this piece-in-progress as it unwinds in spirals 'aimed at the syntax of the mind itself...its restructuring of experience' with the understanding that it may later appear in greatly altered form. In a real sense this writing writes itself; I try to heed, copy, then hone to the bone what might be wanting to be sung, for what is below, and often what I write, is more akin to music, a vocal/verbal lilt beyond a particular solid tilt of view of a world absolute, static logos.

Heraclitus noted thousands of years ago, 'All is flux.'

To this I would only add, and perhaps this is what all of my writing amounts to,

'All is reflux.'

Selah. WF

NYC,1/31/11

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poem by Warren Falcon
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Gnostic Texts

Described as snobbish and elite
by Garry Wills,
what the Church wished to delete
provides me thrills.
I’m thinking of the Gnostic text
that, somewhat rude, is
opposed to those disciples vexed
by deeds of Judas,
proposing that he was opposed
to martyrdom,
which Christians have so long supposed
to be the bomb
that made so popular the myth
this text explodes.
Like Pagels, I am happy with
such Gnostic codes.

Inspired by “Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, ” by Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King (New York: Penguin,2007) , and Gary Wills’s description of second century Gnostic texts such as “The Gospel of Juddas” as “elite and snobbish” in his book “What The Gospels Meant, ” reviewed by David Gibson (“What Jesus Really Did, ” NYT, March 2,2008) :
“What the Gospels Meant” starts straightforwardly with a helpful explanation of just what a Gospel is: “a meditation on the meaning of Jesus in the light of sacred history as recorded in the sacred writings.” Wills then parses the Gospel of Mark, the earliest account, as a “report from the suffering body of Jesus, ” written to comfort early Christians facing persecution. Matthew’s is the teaching Gospel, recounting many of Christianity’s most familiar sermons. The erudite Luke presents “the reconciling body of Jesus, ” a Gospel of poignant stories like the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan that display the humanity of Jesus and the universality of his message. John is, as ever, the theologian, a prophetic voice from “the mystical body of Jesus.” Yet the paradox of modern Christianity is that the growth of biblical scholarship, and the fervor of believers in sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) , has done so little to affect the mass of biblical illiterates who proclaim their convictions about what Jesus would do while knowing precious little about what he actually did or, more important, what he meant. Neo-atheists aren’t much better, sneering at Christians but displaying ignorance about Christianity. And neo-Gnostics — academics and acolytes who claim to channel the rebel spirit of various early Christian offshoots — routinely confer on “elite and snobbish” (Wills’s phrase) second-century texts an authority they rarely grant to the canon. Such literalism sustains a fragile faith.
In this sense, Wills is a dangerous man. He does not create a foolish consistency out of differing Gospels, but underscores the attributes of each narrative to highlight truths more crucial than whether there were four discrete Evangelists, or whether three wise men actually followed a star in the East. The credulous will be shocked by his rationality, while skeptics will be scandalized by his respect for the faith. To be sure, Wills includes asides that will win few points with Rome, like his claim that the virgin birth “is not a gynecological or obstetric teaching, but a theological one.” And he throws in facts that can be mischievously tossed out at family gatherings or, worse, to the pastor after Sunday services — for example, that the crown of thorns was probably a wreath of acanthus leaves. (Wills also provides his own translations of the original “marketplace” Greek, though I’m not sure that killing the “pampered” calf or hearing that the Word became flesh and “bivouacked with us” will catch on.)

12/28/09

poem by Gershon Hepner
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Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing. What is necessary now is one thing and one thing only that democracy become again democracy in action, not democracy accomplished and piled up in goods and gold.

quote by Archibald MacLeish
Added by Lucian Velea
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A little hand of Democracy, Pres. Corazon C. Aquino

entangle by fire, sweeten by dirt and dust, the unwavering
force and stamina, come to forward the little angel of
democracy, the cry that cradle the past of bravery and
heroism of the fatherland

land of the free, home of the brave, beautiful island
of the pacific; the Philippine republic, welcome the Blooming
meadow of the vast horizon of freedom land where faith lays
the fervent hope of liberty amongst men

as the furnish of incredible fire, harness the beautiful
gold, the birth of the little god, showered her charisma of
faith and patience, pondering the challenge of inferno in the
midst of wondering world of change

the cocoons, of witnessing the tyranny of democracy tore
down the humble beginning of Edsa revolution, lasting its
pure resistance of strength amongst people; surfing the dawn
of new beginning of Philippine democracy, as the echelon of
existence and destiny of the nation

the unwavering faith lives to last in the dungeon of
dictatorship has come to end and the verge of democracy stand
in the clock of an endless bastion of hope of liberty raised to
lift high the dove of unity, mesmerize each dropp of freedom
conquering the Filipino people to love, even life comes no
return, as it lurks the root of survival, kindling the sprout of
seed of happiness in every smile in the heart of men

weeping the faith of a good fight leaving no return to a little
child to hold in thy mother's hope to stand, the fervent widow
of hope live the abundant of charisma to change the course of
Philippine history into the venue of the world scenery

you'll the faith that hold on to live amongst us, you’re the
hope that stand even unto death, your the winner whose heart
steadfastly live in every heart; for a mother who wishes to be
free lives with us until, death comes no more.......

Viva! Pres, Cory, Viva Philippines, Viva Democracy.....

' a tribute to a Pilipino President whose heart lives amongst
the Pilipino people of the Republic of the Philippines '

poem by Antonio Liao
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People Power. A rant.

The people’s voice so long suppressed.
Has now been forcibly expressed
Egyptians want democracy.
The world is waiting now to see
if their demands meet with success.

The winds of change are blowing free.
So tyrants sleep uneasily
They fear to hear the people’s voice
but really they have little choice.
If people choose democracy.

They can no longer rule by force.
Its time to take a different course.
The people have the power to
discard the old bring in the new.
By just resisting passively.

I have no doubt that some will die
As the dictators vainly try.
To cling to power at any cost
a battle that’s already lost.
The people will sweep them away.

The western world must wait and
see what happens next uneasily.
We have no right to interfere
although we have good cause to fear.
The power games that people play.

The world is changing rapidly.
Because of new technology.
Information is exchanged,
the internet has rearranged.
What people are allowed to say.

They have the opportunity
to state their views quite openly
For and against the government.
Although it seems that discontent
is the major force in play..

The peoples will is paramount
They will demand a close account.
From those they give authority
to take control and over see.
the changes that they need today..

Perhaps we too need to review.
A process which is over due

[...] Read more

poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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I was Looking A Long While

for too long i have been bruised
seeing democracy a wondrous diamond
crushed - by whatever means they could -
dented, and if they could, bend to their whims
under their heavy cloak of religion
plundering, killing, raping, in the name of an open world
the rights of which they draw their own lines
for too long i have been bruised
seeing democracy a wondrous first rate horse
kicked, beaten, cut out to serve the greediest of despots
for too long democracy has become
the most convenient way to lay abuse
when you have a country, power, greed
and a legion of devils who die to share your cake
democracy automatically becomes a dirty word

I was Looking A Long While
I WAS looking a long while for a clue to the history of the past for
myself, and for these chants-and now I have found it;
It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither
accept nor reject ;)
It is no more in the legends than in all else;
It is in the present-it is this earth to-day;
It is in Democracy-(the purport and aim of all the past ;)
It is the life of one man or one woman to-day-the average man of
to-day;
It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts;
It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery,
politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of
nations,
All for the average man of to-day.
Walt Whitman

poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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The Democratic Way

Where the arrow falls
A life is taken
Its flight was always destined to find
The rebel's heart
The believers who shake this world
Extinguished by the powers of state

For the rule of law defines society
This history that made all men equal
That teaches our children democracy

This democracy that America holds dear
And England expects
Has been stolen, hocked to the highest bidder
Reformed homogenised and re distributed
By the invisible hand of a powerful few

Your choices defined by control
Hidden in the refuse tip of mankind
Austerity and debt
Dumped by Druid bankers mesmerizing us
With chemical whispers that poison our dreams
Democracy has found a new owner
And we are its victim

A nation of employees procreating our lives in debt
Government no longer the servant
People in a cage, no escape
For we are the slaves
Destined to die in unmarked graves
Forgotten by the winds of time

This illusion that this, is the bed we choose,
But even this is rented
For all property returns to the soil
Waiting for the next solicitors pen

The money that you scrape
Its value has been raped
Slowly evaporating in the
Inflation of wet banker's dreams

For your democracy was always a dream
And this nightmare is here to stay
Your heroes have all been seconded
To protect the carcass that these jackals share

And the rebels that are left
Will never fire a shot in anger again,
For The slave has nothing to fight for

[...] Read more

poem by Steven Cooke
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What is democracy?

They said that the government of the people,
By the people and for the people, remarkable,
Democracy in many countries of third world,
Derived from aimless policies and controversies untold,
People on the street hope for the better tomorrow,
As the tomorrow, their hope never comes true,
Is Painting the finger once in a few years the democracy?
Is carrying the placards with empty stomach a liberty?
Are the indebted human tied with the voiceless economical stump?
When people having nothing, they have the voice,
When people everything, they have a voice with no noise.
Human are made dump for they not want to lose their properties,
Human are made to be tolerant, when they are kept vertical,
Human are confused with capitalistic democracy,
Human are not comfortable with socialistic democracy,
What is the meaning for democracy,
when the mind and the body are controlled?

poem by Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi
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The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations but also all of human thought.

quote by J. Gresham Machen
Added by Lucian Velea
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What Is The 'Orthodox' Difference

There is too much hypocrisy expressed,
In religion.
Too much division in it too...
For it to go unobserved.

The existence of 'Christianity'
Is based upon concepts created by the 'Jews'.
And there seems to be a conflict of interests...
When folks of ignorance slander, demean and smear,
Like they do!

Especially when people uphold beliefs,
Similar in nature.
And said to establish foundations...
That are firm in culture, heritage and customs
As solid as concrete!

And who doesn't know concrete eventually crumbles?

What is the 'orthodox' difference...
When Catholics and Jews conduct familiar rituals?
Wear kippahs (yalmulkes) to dentify their strong ties.
Keep people of color submissive and dismissed.
With racist overtones they claim do not exist!
Yet this clearly sits,
To acknowledge those who are hypocrites

There is too much hypocrisy expressed,
In religion.
Too much division in it too...
For it to go unobserved.

NOTE:

Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew י ה ו ד ה , Yehudah, 'Judah';
[1] in Hebrew: י ַ ה ֲ ד ו ּ ת , Yahedut, the distinctive characteristics of the Judean ethnos)
[2] is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) ,
as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts.
Judaism presents itself as the covenantal relationship between the Children of Israel
(later, the Jewish nation) and God.

It is considered either the first or one of the first monotheistic religions,
and is among the oldest religions still being practised today.
Many of its texts and traditions are central to the other Abrahamic religions,
with Jewish history and the principles and ethics of Judaism having influenced Christianity and Islam,
as well as some non-Abrahamic religions.
As the foundation of Western Christianity,
many aspects of Judaism also correspond to secular Western concepts of ethics and civil law.

[...] Read more

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Blind Faith

(09/19/11)

I was always taught that JESUS CHRIST was a Jew.
Then there is a question that I must ask of you.
If he was a Jew- did he have a bar-mitzvah?
Or was he just put on this earth
So Christianity could give birth?

At the age of twelve he sat down
with rabbi’s and teachers
For this was the way that he would reach us.

His cousin JOHN THE BAPTIST
Was baptizing people with water.
Was this the first step of GODS orders?
Questions such as these will always arise
But I know he’s always by my side.
Christianity was born on blind faith
Most get it early - while others get it late.

This blind faith is passed down from
Generation to generation
This has become our salvation.

Unlike scientist who only believe in what
Can be seen and what can be proven, they ask
How can blind faith keep one moving.
Now JESUS is but one man
Yet his face is in every land.
There is not one person in any religion
Known more than CHRIST.
It makes you think - not once but twice.

This is how fast Christianity has spread
That he is known world wide
And on blind faith we do rely.

As for GOD there is only one
And he gave us his only son.

poem by Louis Rams
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Western Paper

Women throughout history have been generally looked upon as being the weaker sex, and to be the lesser of the two. The Old Testament and the New Testament gives two different views on how women were viewed in each of their times. Throughout these two, changes to christianity occured, and that is the justification behind the differences.

The Old Testament of the bible gives a description of how women were viewed during that time. It depicts what would now be considered obsurd practices of treating women. For example, women that were not married were not allowed to leave their fathers house, women were viewed mainly for child bearing, and that they were not allowed to appear in public venues. Specific references in the book of Genesis show that women were objectified and often used as sexual objects. After doing some research, the book of Exodus reveals that women were considered property of her father untill she became married, where then, ownership would transfer and she would become property of her new husband. Women were treated unjustly and unfairly during this time, and were regarded as being 'dirty' for being a woman.

The New Testament has somewhat of a mixed view on the equality of women to men, but it certainly gives more credit and justification to women being equal. There are still references in the New Testament to how women are considered unequal to men, but there are also new thoughts and ideas of equality of both sexes. Most blatently put, the book of John states that 'All people, men and women, have the opportunity to become children of god' implying that it was all inclusive, meaning both genders, all races, and all sexual orientations. In the same relation, the book of Galatians quotes 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus'.

The bible as a whole has mixed opinions on alot of things, and the standing of women is one of the indescrepencies that is shown. In the Old Testament more than the New Testament, women were objectified and looked down upon. They were viewed as property and as sexual objects. Men were quoted talking about having sex with a women against their will, and it also stated strict restrictions on how a woman should live her life. The New Testament began to shed a little bit more light on the subject, and started giving a little bit more credit and respect to women. Women, as far back as biblical times, have always been thought of as the lesser of the sexes. The contrast is prevalent between the standards of women in the Old and New Testament of the bible.

The arguement arises as to how sexist the bible is. Although I do not agree with the statement that the bible is sexist, I do believe that the way that the bible portrays women is unfair and that it is wrong to objectify women, but the bible ultimately says that God created men and women equal, and that Jesus Christ, the son of God, died for the sins of all people, not just for men.

Over the course of nature, and all the time of human existance on earth, women have be subjected to unfair treatment. The Old Testament gives a more harsh aspect to it, and the New Testament shows a litle bit more respect for women and their place in society. I think that christianity has become corrupt, but in the sense that people are caught up in the congregation aspect rather than the religious aspect of christianity, and are begining to miss the point, to fail to see what the main message in the bible really is.

poem by Zach Hupp
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Democracy doesn't recognize east or west; democracy is simply people's will. Therefore, I do not acknowledge that there are various models of democracy; there is just democracy itself.

quote by Shirin Ebadi
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This country has always been run by elite, and it's an elitist democracy. And that's not a radical concept. It's elitist democracy. When people talk about democracy, they don't talk - really talk about participatory democracy, until the point that we get us at Election Day.

quote by Danny Glover
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Scot-free

No body should go scot-free
This is democracy.
Law will take its own course
This is democracy.
Freedom of speech and expression
Is for all in this democracy.
Freedom of movement for all
In this democracy.

All these are in theory
In practice
Please do not ask anybody.

poem by Gajanan Mishra
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Democracy

If a country’s majority of people are illiterate
Democracy will bear no sweet fruit
Whereas if a country’s most of the people are educated
Democracy will bring peace, harmony and prosperity.

Therefore governments ought to provide education to all citizens
In order to obtain good results of democracy
And if necessary they should go for free education
For the poor people irrespective of sex.

On the other hand education should be up to the mark
And moral education should also be provided
So that a corruption-free society can be established.

Thus democracy is able to set up a welfare state
With a minimum timeframe.

poem by Asif Andalib
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Concept differes

Rich advocate the democracy but concept differ
make life hell by adding poverty to suffer
Forget about education and nutrition
To drain out national wealth is only contribution

Why are we afraid of impartial judiciary?
Why immunity for big leaders is necessary?
Thousands take birth in slums and disappear
Why to take to affront when we are forced to bear?

Democracy is made laughing stock
Even illiterate occupy the seat and act as crook
There is no time with them for poverty alleviation
Their seat and perk remains main concern

See the rural areas and city suburban
They are hell but trying to prove as heaven
Lack of basic amenities and poverty around
Where would you try, see and feel proud

We are in materialistic world
It has grown many more folds
The crimes, unemployment and racial abuses on rise
The democracy may survive but surely facing the demise

Why are we hesitant to bring new order?
Why corruption and lies come under scanner?
Do they think democracy means banana republic?
Why wise and deserving seat behind and occupied by alcoholic?

Who cares for millions starving?
Who cares for youths well deserving?
Can any one come forward and takes us to safety?
Is it not the curse and undeserving pity?

Let whole system be overhauled?
Let there be no lacuna and severely holed?
It is time to hold the country together
Time is not far off when country may disintegrate and scatter

poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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