being raised in the twentieth century
the late fifties to early seventies
within the farmlands of mid-Michigan
surrounded by fields growing
navy beans, sugar beets, and corn
with those painted barns having yards
smelling of pigs, cows, chickens and geese
while I was undergoing
a self-transformation,
a self-realization
that I was to become a mystic
who would observe
from a spiritual context
of a lesser predisposition
the emergence of
recurrent patterns of process
within Nature
I,
me as the individual
a person living a childhood
was taught through example
by my Scot Irish, German/Polish family
descendants of my ancestors
some who fought in the bath of blood
for the purpose
that right for an ideal called freedom
during the American Revolutionary War
I was told
we try to live with others
by the code of
“DON’T TREAD ON ME”
like don’t tread upon
that rattlesnake
pictured in a coil on the Gadsden flag
and too,
my family
believed wholeheartedly in the phrase,
“Give me Liberty, or give me Death”
those fervent words spoken by Patrick Henry
on March 23rd 1775 at the Virginia convention
that motivated the calling out
of the people present and in agreement,
“To arms! To arms!” ~
under the guidance of these assertions
I was taught to act toward
as well as get along with
my neighbors,
my community,
those of another state
and those living across our borders
even if of a different
name,
gender,
race,
belief,
culture,
tradition
or national heritage
I was to treat all people
like the way of the rattlesnake
as it was found to be way back when
living before on the land
that would later become America
of which whose behavior
the relevant traits of its character
was aptly described in the words
by the “American Guesser”
more than likely Ben Franklin:
“She never begins an attack,
nor, when once engaged,
ever surrenders:
She is therefore an emblem of
magnanimity and true courage. …
she never wounds ’till she has
generously given notice,
even to her enemy,
and cautioned him against
the danger of treading on her.”
so in like manner
my family did not
intentionally tread on,
intrude into the ways and lives
of others,
unless the other asked or
was in dire need
or unless my family
their ways ,
their lives
were somehow
someway,
tread upon by another ~
also when growing up
I was told it was proper
to be a proud American
to be proud of what
we are trying to become
continually without deviation
while being human
and at times falling short
as to the standard set
within our high expectation
even so,
despite our weaknesses
we still tried to live up to
what our people had fought for
the right of the individual
blessed with
a liberty called freedom
as it applied to the person
where a person of self-responsibility
is held responsible
according to
their acts and deeds,
actions resultant from
having a freedom of choice
the individual
having a right to choose
therefore
and therein
learning through experience
by living the decisions they’ve made ~
it was believed by my family
this right for the individual
was not the same right
to be given to some group,
as in a culture,
race,
gender,
government,
etc.,
‘cause the way my family thought
was that our people had left homelands
in the late sixteen hundreds
and early seventeen hundreds
while crossing the sea at great risk
to a “New World”
so they could live differently,
to be themselves
according to their ways
and because of this
at least to my family
it was no longer as important
to be identified or linked to our roots
as being Scottish,
English,
German
or Polish
I was to be an American
a person with rights
with a right to choose
that respected the rights,
the freedoms
and beliefs of
“We the people”
recognized as
my fellow Americans,
every one of them
that person
as an individual citizen
each and every person
all those that volunteered
without coercion
or threat of life,
who willingly
joined to become a united nation
a society built upon
an ideal of liberty
procuring the development
of individuality
as it relates to freedom of choice
where the individual
through their own efforts
has a greater chance for success
as they see fit
not as another sees fit
while we cohabited
living alongside
with a diversity of others
believing in the same ideal
as to liberty
as a collectivity of cooperative individuals
who accept and have a mutual tolerance
for each other,
regardless ~
and yet
my family blessed to have
this kind of freedom
felt sort of uneasy
and rightly so,
about losing their liberty
fearing that overtime
in the face of
the history of
past behavior
the acts of humanity
once again
might repeat itself
maybe not quite in the same way
wherefore being
slightly different
yet still an offspring to
or a cousin to
the inevitable and eroding
spirit of mob mentality
to be able to
to assemble
attract ripe minds
around similar wants and desires
to obtain a popular representation
that would foster
and gain leverage for its cause
about some agreed upon way of opinion,
point-of-view
or a particular way of
perceiving life as it should be
especially as this kind of mentality,
grows in popularity
to the point of doing
as this type of
herd mentality sees fit ~
as I’ve learned
come to experience
while growing up
and observing types of process
within Nature like this
those who are lured to
this manner of mind,
have a way of forming
a reliance to an alliance
a group of individuals,
constructed and mustered
to be persuasive through sheer number
as in a business association,
organization,
whether it be religious based
or a social movement
supporting a particular race and/or gender
or a lobbyist group
within the political arena
apparently to
seemingly having
the main intent to influence,
to pressure others
into restricting
the life choices of other individuals
all those people,
who live their lives
not being of a like kind of mind
as like them
that group
of which tries
to make those different
comply,
by way of
a forced compliance
no matter if their way as a group
is deemed
not to be right
by another individual
though in all fairness
and
understandably so
these groups with causes
can be of noble origin
founded upon the trials and tribulations
suffered
during the struggle to live with others
and because of a need
to be identified in a certain way
that to me,
these wants and desires of an individual
to belong to something
should not be made into
a point of judgment
or contention by the individual
because others have the right
to live as they please
through a civil manner in America ~
however,
for some
due to the vanity arising
from a group of people
having the sole mentality
of a perceived rightness
as to a way of belief or ideology
they disassociate themselves
into the realm of bias
and tunnel vision
excluding other ways
brought forth through
the process of individual choice
while they ensnare
along the way
all those
who are susceptible by way of
an intellectual disposition
of which being based upon
the sense of being well-educated
to lend the group support
through scholarly guidance
by way of a superficial
realm of intelligence
as if bequeathed
with a divinely mandated stature
to instruct all individuals
considered to be less in the know
that possess a more feeble mind
not capable of
progressing intelligently
at their own pace
or quick enough
to achieve the right way
as deemed appropriate by the group
no longer wanting to
wait on that person,
to naturally live and learn
from the experience
they individually make
while living with others
through life choices ~
it is then
it so seems
out of sheer disappointment
as to the self-development of
the individual
these kind of groups
whatever form they take
and yet acting in a similar manner
whether to be
acting as one group
or a collection of groups together
they convert themselves
into having
an escalated tendency
of falling head-on
face first
into the droves of impatience
and the throngs of intolerance
for all persons
towards all individuals
of which,
they, this grouping
act as if
a wannabe authoritarian
through a sales job notoriety
identifying and labeling all those
all those still
who remain inflexible
to the group’s
wished-for ways
it appears then
at this climax of mob
or herd mentality
at this heighten apex of
grandiose enlightenment
they, this grouping
those dressed up
to appear
as a majority representative,
seemingly sanctified
covering over their predisposition
they look as if to be justified,
now worthy enough to enlist
call upon the people’s servant
and forsworn protector of liberty
that ideal of freedom
embodying basic rights
for the individual
a person’s right of choice
not meant for the mob
assembling a group with a cause
and yet this slave
is now primed by the herd
the government
and its branches within
the republic’s jurisdiction
to enact laws
that will temper the behavior
of all individuals that dare not conform ~
wherefore and wherein
at this time
during these occurrences
it is demonstrated
for all of a receptive
and not a predisposed mind
to observe the reaction
the end result of
when laws are over-relied upon
used beyond the extent
and original intent of the people’s
envisioned purpose
as a regulatory process
or jurisprudence
altered
to sequester a certain way
being enforced through
a restrictive manner levied by law
instead of holding fast
to the conviction
that an individual being
guaranteed certain inalienable rights
overtime,
as I’ve written previously,
“where a person of self-responsibility
is held responsible
according to
their acts and deeds,
actions resultant from
having a freedom of choice
the individual
having a right to choose
therefore
and therein
learning through experience
by living the decisions they’ve made”
would eventually become
the type of individual
that’s trying to be forced
through a short cut approach
with a tire patch,
quick fix agenda
incited by a mob mentality
that’s being reinforced by the law ~
after which
this escalated process
will become to be perceived
as I’ve related to in the past
as to the motivation for
building our nation upon
taken as an outright infringement
upon the code of
“DON’T TREAD ON ME”
by our present day patriots
who flow with the blood
the blood of those patriots
of days gone by
who spawned the ideology
the root character of America
that spirit of liberty with its freedom
those patriots
who assembled at a tea party in Boston
to stand up against exploitative regulations
and taxation gone a-rye
through the repulsive act
of treading upon the people
and too
as these modern laws get enacted
that appear to tread upon
the rights of the people as individuals
these seemingly despotic acts
will be remembered by the patriots of today
as emblematic of
a foregone monarchy
eventually fought against,
to be freed from its constraints forever
released from a self-appointed authority’s
oppressive ways and
repressive discriminatory actions
of which this rebellion
eventually led
to the proclamation by Lincoln,
at Gettysburg
outlining the intrinsic characteristic
for governance,
as being a
“government of the people,
by the people,
for the people”
and as aforementioned
a government with laws
not for: “a group of individuals….
a business association,
organization,
whether it be religious based
or a social movement
supporting a particular race and/or gender
or a lobbyist group
within the political arena”
but a government with laws
enacted “for the people”
designed to protect the individual rights of,
“each and every person
all those that volunteered
without coercion
or threat of life,
who willingly
joined to become a united nation
a society built upon
an ideal of liberty
procuring the development
of individuality
as it relates to freedom of choice
where the individual
through their own efforts
has a greater chance for success
as they see fit” ~
I can only assume,
these modern day patriots
who rightly feel their individuality
is once again being tread upon
will exhibit the traits of the rattlesnake
exemplified by the patriots of old
they will give notice through protests
demonstrating their right to free speech
insisting the government,
their appointed civil servant
follow without deviation,
rather than follow the influence
of a predisposed mentality
contrary to the basic laws instituted
but to follow and do its sworn duty
to protect
and to insure the individual’s
not some groups
inalienable rights as to a liberty
with its freedom of choice
so a phrase like:
“Give me Liberty, or give me Death”
will remain a phrase of the past
and not some call, “To arms! To arms!” ~
my words above
at best
aren’t meant to be
some yay or nay
they are just
the way
I see it
as a mystic
who tries to observe
from a spiritual context
of a lesser predisposition
the emergence of
recurrent patterns of process
within Nature
peace out
Words by ~Keith Alan Hamilton~
