Isn’t it amazing what it takes for the experiences of your life to come together.
What is it you have wanted more than anything else in life?
For me – since I was little – it was wisdom and understanding.
Funny thing about that – it is exactly what I have received from life. Not money – success – fame – all of that started to break in at different points along the way, but just as quickly as that breaking in started, all of those things – money, success, fame – were killed. How and by who I will probably never know. But wherever there were lessons to be learned I was there and the world seemed to open up to give me its ultimate secrets. The biggest and most guarded secret is the one which showed me if the world defined money, success, fame had broken in, the wisdom and understanding would have stopped and that which had already broken in would be gone in a very short period of time.
Things that seemed obvious to me were a blank to many of my friends. If that is not true, they were magnificent in hiding what they saw and understood. And what I understood was what one fears and that which keeps one from stepping out on faith is really who you are. The fear is of losing those things the world has provided and putting you in a position of want – that seems to be our greatest fear.
So many things come to us for learning and almost all of them we ignore as we look and walk in the opposite direction. We live on assumptions. The assumptions we have put into our minds and hearts because that is what we want to believe about life and that is what we want to believe about those around us and that is what we want to believe about the world in which we live.
One grand truth, being presented on a world-wide stage these days is the moral structure needed for the world to maintain its racism, sexism and all the rest. That moral structure is deep within our souls today and we live by that structure without ever thinking about what that has done to us spiritually. The sacrifices we have made as human beings over the generations to satisfy our most base needs are horrifying when looked at on a world-wide scale.
How many lies do you have to tell yourself to believe and act and create your world around the incredible belief that you and those like you are “better than” everyone else. What lies have Alabamians had to tell themselves to support and vote for Roy Moore. We are living out a morality play each day and it is stark. There is nothing romanticizing what is being played out on the U. S. Government’s stage. It is and has drowned out and is quickly removing every good thing we have ever been about – and that is no exaggeration. How did the ovens in Germany come about? They were created by those who were born, raised, lived and died in a society which was full of normal human beings trying to survive but gradually taking that need to survive and that fear of failure to incredible heights. They were not evil people, they were just like us. They became evil as they became more and more entrenched in the opportunities to achieve untold wealth, great fame, etc. etc.
As human beings we seem to have been born with the need to group together with like minded, like looking, like acting human beings. We have had our tribes which insured our continued existence. There is nothing wrong with tribalism, until the day comes when that tribalism slides into “my tribe is better than your tribe and your tribe must serve my tribe so my tribe can have more of what it wants in this life at the expense of your life and times.”
What do these rummaging have to do with today? It brings to mind and heart all of the huge sacrifices we have made to create a country in which some are better than others; to have created that country on the backs of slaves who were demeaned and considered less than human; to have used the marriage laws to enslave others; and to have used women in various states to satisfy the most prurient needs of humans – which once satisfied become progressively more enslaving and violent and demeaning.
What price have we paid for that to have happened? We live in and have created a society in which we have split the human race into sub-races, all described with some inhuman traits and all claimed as less than. The price for that has been our honor – our integrity – our beauty – our grace – our loveliness – our ability to love one another “as I have loved you.”
These times with Donald Trump have been times which have surfaced and brought front and center the sacrifices these United States have made to maintain as “better than”. We have built what we call a “great country.” We have built a country we consider better than all others and have never seen the sins we have put into that country’s structure. We have built a country on a huge flaw and that flaw is today creating a huge earthquake. What remains when the shaking and spewing up of stuff from the center of the earth stops is anybody’s guess. We have built a country by condemning Jesus to death and then calling for a bowl of soap and water and a towel with which to wash our hands of the carnage that followed. We have build a country and then divorced ourselves from its history. We have built a country and taken no responsibility for the price we demanded others pay for its creation, its wealth, and its continuation in the same vein which caused many generations to take on a system of moral values which they practice and deny at the same time thinking that others can’t see the lie!
Slavery – the Trail of Tears – the opening our doors to immigrants from all countries and then labelling them as “less than” by those deemed on top of the heap – all have prices to pay and today we are paying those prices.
Our value system was shown as bereft when we killed African slaves who ran away, when we lynched Africans who dared to vote. It didn’t matter whether they were 100% or 5% African, they were not on the same high level as others who were redesigned as – not human and a part of the human race – but “White” and better than those who were not white. The north ignored the lynchings and claimed the moral high ground. They had psychic ways to deal with such people. It was a slow painful death they put out. The south engaged in incredible violence and so Billie Holiday sang “Strange Fruit” and everyone knew what that meant the lynchings were so wide spread.
For years the “flowers of the South”, the “Southern Ladies”, had a stereotype and pictures which showed them as “beautifully” adorned and having their place on top of the pedestal, that very high mythical column. They were blinded by the compliments, the supposed lifting them up above ordinary humans, the opening the doors for them by others so their gloved hands didn’t have to touch that which many mortals touched before them. And so much more. We bought our own horribleness because it flattered our egos and built up our vanity. The truth of the degradation, demeaning, violence against were all denied by even – or should I say especially by – the women against whom it was thrown.
Today that has been exposed and is continuing to be exposed on all of its levels. It has been like peeling the onion. We are almost down to the core so the fighting and brutalizing has become blinding in its attempt to maintain what has been and move it even further by making it function in spite of the fact that the cover has been removed and we can see all of this in its stark truth. We have become that corrupt?
Alabama is symbolic of these United States and its historic degradation of those in power. Drunk with its own strength against others “not like them” it is almost as if retribution is at its door step.
We thought the bottom was reached with the carnage on the Petus Bridge, but that was just a way station on the way to greater evil.
To have seen yourself involved in that kind of sin and to move on to ever greater sin and to then claim god on your side, behind what you do, pushing you to ever larger acts of evil – it is mind-blowing how anyone can see you and not recoil from the evil coming from your very pores.
Today, it is not about African Americans on the Petus bridge – it is about the right of males to brutalize, sexually abuse, tear down, misuse and lots of other adjectives – women. What will it be about tomorrow. The same souls are calling the future.
Women in corporations were brought in to serve the men and that happened because the women had been trained to acquiesce and to demean themselves. It becomes understandable how that could have happened when you own a small corporation where you do a lot of the work and see how you can get behind because you become overwhelmed with only 24 hours of the day. And you then see how easy it would be to bring in people who have been labeled “less than”, “not as bright as”, not meant for the higher things in life – especially the exercise of power,” to have them do all of the grunt work and most of the real work while you prance around like a terminally ill peacock taking credit, money, power, success.
The campaign of Roy Moore is a Calling. It is Roy Moore set up as the bait to call folks to maintain a society which allows women to be used as sex objects and then discarded. He is bait to call folks to lie, cheat, steal, and yes – murder – because women have been murdered in the name of preserving and passing down to our children a society which has institutionalized and wants to continue in the way it has been going for hundreds of years. He is bait to have some folks turn away and try to set up the same structure, but less transparent. For these United States to be racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and all the rest means these United States has transgressed in gross ways against its citizens and against others around the world needed to maintain a “better than” society where the hard and dirty work is done by those scraping and scratching 24/7 just to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. It is a society with trap doors for those who go too far and are not among the group designated as “better than”. Why else would a man become Secretary of the Treasury who has had tens of thousands of people thrown out of their homes onto the street and who lives in a mansion which could house many more than just himself and his wife? Why else would we have laws to prevent any other than those selected by that society to succeed with enormous road blocks to trip, fell and kill those who are able to get around those road blocks? but we have standards which are necessary to continue the denial – we have those few to disprove the rule and maintain them vigorously. Even the KKK had to have a few blacks to maintain their superiority and proclaim their high morality because they accepted those few – the others were not worthy, not human, not equal to.
Amazingly, my life has escaped the anger that should come from living in such a place, but it has. Why? Because that anger is generated in those who share the moral values of those doing the bigotry. To see how far we have gone off the road is to understand the story of Adam and Eve on a level most ignore and just quote the Bible as a very literal book. To demand the you read and understand the Christian and Jewish Scriptures literally is to totally miss what it is saying. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of what could have been. Where we started from and how far into sin, degradation and evil we have fallen. Adam and Eve turned their naked bodies into horrible sinfulness and ugliness they had to hide. Evil crept into their lives, which they cultivated and still today cultivate.
Many of us hoped and thought the horribleness in Alabama would give way to something more beautiful. After witnessing that period of American history in Alabama and in other places around these United States – that example should have brought many to their knees asking forgiveness. Instead it seems to have generated a hard hearted response – a determination to continue on the path of violence towards women as not only justified but able to give one entry into the hallowed halls of government.
So much more could be said – however – the one relevant thing is “How long, O Lord, how long!”
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
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Many Responses to Trump Article!
January 21st, 2018Since we had several responses to the same blog – we thought we would combine them as best we can to let you know what members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community are thinking about and responding to. These are not direct quotes as we have tried to condense some, which were very long, and write the essence of others. We do think we have kept a faithful reporting of the comments we received. The emotion against Trump is amazingly strong. We think, at some point, something has to give before this society explodes.
2. It is interesting to me that once upon a time I used to love reading about the social goings on in Washington, D. C., particularly those around the president and his cabinet. None of that seems to exist today. I have yet to read about Trump and his wife going to social events in Washington. I also don’t see anything about the “Washington establishment” having social events and inviting the president and his family. Have I missed something or does Washington society see in this family the same thing the rest of us sees and doesn’t want to spend an evening mired in Bull Crap.
3. Closing down the United States’ financial arm of the government by refusing to fund it on the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. What a way to mark that day. We have decided to wear black arm bands until Trump is removed from office. We can’t walk around in pink hats, but we can keep our hats in our pocket books for times when we can put them on. I think the import of those arm bands say clearly the kind of grief we are experiencing with this man as president.
4. When I heard the president prevaricating on which the day the government would be shut down and. which day he would announce his “Fake News Awards” – I was not surprised that he threatened a lot, but didn’t deliver until 1/20/2018. That is the day of his big celebration planned at Mar a Lago. I wondered when I first heard of the celebration who would attend. At $250,000 per couple that is more money to join the disappeared and unaccounted for and unreported disposition of money from the Trump inauguration. People must now have a clue as to where their money is going. My thought when the shut down loomed imminent was whether Trump would attend, because of the possibly low numbers of people who subscribed and would be attending? There has been almost no coverage of the event and the press has been very carefully kept away. That event shrouded in silence given what is happening all around and given what attendance or lack of it means to what is happening elsewhere it is quite suspicious that it was almost totally not covered by the press.
Everyone seems mystified as to why Trump has acted so unbelievably wild given this huge event on the horizon. One would think his normal way of being would be to do what he could to attend and bask in the glow of people idolizing him. If that was not to happen and it began to be clear as the day came nearer – how to get over what would be a very revealing lack of support by his big contributors and save face was an issue. Doing what he could to not fund the government was one way to glossing over this possible lack of participation by his big supporters.
I can’t believe people who are careful about their money would have made reservations to pay that kind of money to attend this “celebration” given the history of money disappearing and not being accounted for by the Trump group. That seems to me to be what is behind this government shut-down. A cover-up for a possibly failed “event”? It would certainly have been majorly covered by the press if Trump were in attendance, but given that he was not there it seems that press coverage was elsewhere so we have next to no information as to what happened. Have to get on the telephone to friends to see who knows about this – I am sure someone will talk about Saturday at the Trumps’
5. I have taken a flying leap into wishful thinking as to why I think Trump worked so hard to see that the Government was shut down on Saturday 1/20/2018. Mueller was ready to indict and arrest – Trump, Pence, Kelly and all the rest, but shutting down the government meant those about to be indicted would not be arrested during this event? maybe that will happen next week. Just a thought. I also thought the “Fake News” awards were meant to cover-up something. Especially since the date of release of that “award” kept changing. Wonder if those changes had to do with the Mueller investigation? One can only hope. Especially strange that Pence was not at the Mar a Lago party – they sent him out of the country during the party. Hope another book is coming out to explain all of these things. Can’t wait to read the reality so I can stop guessing.
6. Oh, the news leaking out about Russia infiltrating the Conservative movement. Do you think “Karma”, which lots of people are beginning to talk about, had anything to do with it? My dream is that those “Russian” and others infiltrating the Conservative movement would actually be converted in the process. Anything is possible, right? I wondered why there were these pictures around of so many of the loudest Conservatives and Evangelicals turning up in Russia! Whatever being a Conservative used to mean, today it seems to mean you are cavorting with those who want to take down the United States Government and their way of contributing to that is by being an undercover part of the Conservative – especially Evangelical group. How things change. There was a day when Russia was the “evil empire” and we were taking down the wall – Ronald Reagan famously went to Germany to say “Mr. President, take down this wall.” One would think that experience would make us very wary of building walls, especially for such evil reasons.
The Conservatives and Evangelicals are intransigent in their support of Trump, no matter what he does, and I can’t believe true Evangelicals would take that position. When I hear people like Franklin Graham supporting a man who is an adultery, sexual pervert, pathological liar, sexual abuser, see no reason to ask for forgiveness because he has done nothing wrong etc. etc. and sees him as a role model for our children, I wonder how much money Russia and its allies have contributed to Franklin’s group. Hearing about the infiltration of the NRA, a group I used to wonder how they became so powerful and with so much money so quickly, it certainly makes one think that others must have followed suit.
Editors Note:
That ends our trying to put out what we received from several people. We combined two or three comments into one and did our best to accurately give to you what was given to us. When someone like Donald Trump is doing his best to undermine and destroy all of us so we become too exhausted to fight back and he can just move along swiftly with his program with diminishing push back, one good way of fighting back is to openly and publicly vent to let all of that ugly out of our systems.
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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Guest Comments, politics, Racism, Sexism
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Guest comments, Hedge Schools, Kitchen Table Talk, politics, racism, sexism | Comments Off on Many Responses to Trump Article!