Lady Destiny

Fastened to destiny by a band of stars,
Wearing man’s fate around her slender neck,
Strolling upon a misty seaside deck,
Predetermining the sun’s rise from afar,
But, time passes like a nondescript car,
The stars disband into distant white specks,
Another day, another feckless trek
That leaves black sticky stains like warm tar.

To both herald the forces of destiny
And be their long battered heroine,
To distill a moment’s serenity,
In an endless game she can’t seem to win.

Elegant and enchanting is the way
That she smiles, then glides about her day.

Dec. 5, 2011
-For Katy

Tintagel

I wandered through a forest
In the Cornish countryside
Like some grand old quest
Through where giants and elves used to hide.

Branches gnarled like magic wands,
Wearing robes of moss and ivy,
Bejeweled with streams and ponds
Hiding in each forest valley.

Then, I wandered further out
To where the rolling Cornish hills
End their cavernous hedge lined routes
And crash down with a thrill.

Smashing with rock against ocean,
The land pounds the immense coast,
A battle of vast proportion
Observed from my earthly post.

The Forces of Man stand tall and proud
Filled up with stubborn rock,
Draped in a grassy green shroud,
Over the eons, taking stock.

The Forces of Nature peer back,
So endlessly flat and deep,
An earthquake or tidal attack
Would put man to fatal sleep.

Speckled on the battlefield
Are stairways, bridges, boats, and paths
Where tiny people try not to yield
To the war’s grinding wrath.

Pushing forward on their way
Cherishing virtue in their hearts
Waking up each day,
Creating beauty by playing their parts.

There, perched upon a mountain,
Confronting the timeless sea
Are Tintagel Castle’s ruins,
Where King Arthur came to be.

The Canal Boat

Bump! Bang! The boat rumbles beneath my feet,
Crashing against the hard canal bank,
“Permanent damage?” I ask, “will it sink?”
Vibrating passengers sneer from their seats.
At this point, a sharp turn seems discreet.
Bump! Bang! Now, we hit the opposite bank,
Like a convulsing fish in a small tank,
My wide swiveling folly seems complete.

How smooth and lovely can be Old England
When you use short, frequent changes in course,
Tempering each move with opposite force,
Thus, life’s narrow path molds an alert hand.

Through the long, dark tunnel I guide the boat,
At an hour’s bright end we softly float.

Amir

You and I, two fates intertwined,
Tied together on the journey
Alternating with glide and grind,
Joyful bruises while we hurry.

July 9, 2011

-On the occasion of Amir Talaizadeh's birthday.

On the Cusp of Disaster

A gapping hole upon the earth,
From which the future springs forth,
As the final hour draws nigh,
Try to save before they die.

The Capra Presidential Candidate of 2012: Thaddeus McCotter

In the 1939 film from director Frank Capra, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” businessmen and politicians are depicted as scheming to push through legislation for the construction of an unneeded dam. Jimmy Stewart’s character Jefferson Smith, who is the equivalent of a local Boy Scout leader, serendipitously gets appointed a U.S. senator for the state where the dam is planned.

As Capra’s good natured everyman, Mr. Smith is subsequently chewed up and all but spit out by the Washington machine. Through his naïve persistence, Smith at the last moment successfully exposes the scheme, winning the day.

Today, when thinking about who we want to represent us in Washington, my thoughts go to the fictional Mr. Smith. There is something about Smith, just like George Bailey in Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” and Longfellow Deeds in Capra’s “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” something exceptionally good yet seemingly ordinary about the leading men in these films that sets them apart from their peers.

The problem is finding this exceptionally good yet seemingly ordinary candidate, let’s call him or her the Capra candidate. The closest I’ve come is Representative Thaddeus McCotter. Who?

Not a big name by a long shot—a Capra candidate couldn’t be—McCotter is currently considering throwing his hat into the race for the Republican nomination. I think he should.

Like the classic Capra hero, Rep. McCotter is a hometown kind of guy who at times seems decidedly ordinary. The Detroit, Mich. suburb he represents, Livonia, is where he was born and raised and he only ventured about 30 minutes away to attend university. Like Mr. Smith who plays the mouth harp and Mr. Deeds who plays the tuba, Mr. McCotter skillfully plays the guitar.

As for exceptionally good, McCotter fits the bill. McCotter has taken some exceptionally brave positions. While other Republicans talk about being fiscally conservative, he actually voted against the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry in 2008.

Speaking on Fox News, McCotter said: “Wall Street-Washington crony capitalists have put a $700 billion bag of dung on taxpayers doorsteps, rung the bell, and asked you to thank them when you answer it.”

The prevailing logic for Republicans voting for the bailout was that the economy would have been in shambles without it.

But, McCotter retorted: “The fundamental premise is flawed, for government to say that they know better how to invest your money in a market that no one else would spend their own money on is fatally flawed!”

Whether or not the bailout was necessary in the short term is debatable, but McCotter’s words have the ring of self-evident truth. He rightly suggests that we are putting off our country’s growing, long term fiscal problems.

Also, as I’ve pointed out before, Republicans’ presidential contenders have shown no real position on the Chinese communist regime. China is the largest country in the world, the number two and rising economy, and the country with the largest military. It can’t be ignored!

McCotter has taken a refreshingly brave and active approach to China. When then Republican President Bush was planning to visit Beijing Olympics in 2008, McCotter signed a bill asking that the United States boycott the Beijing Olympics "until that tyrannical communist regime begins to recognize and respect the God-given rights of their own citizens,” said McCotter.

McCotter continued: “If the U.S. persists and attends, despite the inhuman actions of that regime, then we will have betrayed our responsibility as free and sovereign citizens, as equal children of God, to stand with our brothers and sisters in their pursuit of justice and freedom.”

Wait, am I reading the words from a Frank Capra movie or a Thaddeus McCotter speech? Hopefully, I’m reading the words of our next president.

A Sonnet for Falun Dafa Day

Sovereign is the invisible state
That exists between particles of air,
Buddhas, Taos, and Gods are residents there,
Ruling here through countless forces of fate.
Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance are great
Laws they use to govern, simple and fair,
Conduits to their celestial layer,
Seen by those who are honest, kind, and wait.

Visible to all is the gorgeous Spring,
Soft, warm air that through the cold seems to comb
Fragrant blossoms unfold, birds sweetly sing,
Hints of a journey to a better home.

From home, the phosphorescent Monarch calls:
“Make perpetual haste before the Fall!”

April 27, 2011

NYC School Reform Must Happen Now

The city is looking at the biggest teacher layoffs in 40 years. The cuts to the city’s department of education could be even bigger if it doesn’t get the money it is hoping to from the state, which releases its budget next week.

With money and teachers flowing away from the city’s educational system, it is distressing to think that when the city’s public schools need to be improving they may instead be getting worse.

Are there ways to improve the city’s schools without throwing money and teachers at them, as many politicians seem to love to do?

I suspect there are. In fact, at this point, I would say any real, fundamental, and lasting improvements to the city’s public schools are going to happen without money. The numbers game has failed.

“Right now, we rank number one in the nation in spending per student, and number 34 in student achievement,” says Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a public letter issued last week. “Worse still, these poor results are coming after a decade of record spending increases in education funding.”

“Throwing money at the problem is not the answer,” continues Cuomo. “We need to cut the bureaucratic fat and champion reforms that will help our students achieve their true potential.”

The next question then is what reforms to champion. This is the perfect time for the city’s department of education to try some really sweeping and bold reforms to schools. Many ideas are already out there and are working. We just need the chutzpah to go out there and grab them.

Many ideas are being tested in charter school or have been used in other schools.

Right now, the DOE is experimenting with a project called School Of One. This project, being tested on students in three schools, offers a personalized curriculum for each student based on daily evaluation. The preliminary results are promising, according to administrators involved.

“I am a former teacher, and I remember how hard it was to meet the needs of each student in my class,” said Joel Rose of the DOE, who came up with the idea, in an interview with The Epoch Times. “I was teaching the fifth grade and I had students at the second-grade level and some at the ninth-grade level and everything in between.”

Sounds promising to me too. At this point, the city’s schools do not have a lot to lose.

Other educational reforms that have promise include instituting uniforms and making schools single gender. These methods for instilling discipline are already used by some charter schools and have been in use traditionally among private schools, like Catholic schools.

I grew up attending Catholic schools. The facilities and materials we had were typically of lower quality than those at public schools, but the quality of education, evidenced by the standard barometers like graduation rates, state tests, and college attendance, was higher.

Could we not harness the atmosphere of Catholic schools without actually being religious schools?

For instance, what if, during the school year, everyone in a school, from the principal and teachers down to the janitor and the students, were required to not drink, smoke, or swear; not watch PG-13 or worse movies, television, or other media; and not engage in a relationship outside of marriage. Call them secular commandments. Whatever they are, every single person would be judged by the same simple rules.

Certainly, not everyone would follow these secular commandments, but they would be there and they would be in their faces every day. They would be expected by their superiors, teachers, and classmates to be following them.

Just think about the kind of environment that would create. Certainly one where our children could thrive.

The Knights of the New Epoch

The knights that rule the depths of night,
Rising early before dawn,
Armed and ready in their flight,
Are great conquerors, not pawns.
Above their heads a banner burns
With energy strong and bright,
Alive, unstoppable it yearns
To touch ev’rything in sight,
To spread upon the vast, dark earth
A gushing force of power
That incinerates with pure Truth
Lies’ fortified towers.

Invincible, they storm the walls,
This kingdom has been reclaimed;
When you hear their loud battle calls,
Your mind’s ears are burned by flames,
Jerked awake into the cold world,
Made so painfully alert,
Into this moment you are hurled,
Joyed for fate of any sort.
The bloody battle is over;
They could fight a thousand more;
These land and people now are their’s
To give to their ordained lord.

Though they may not say it at first
The conquered people rejoice
In their cleared minds, for at long last
Silenced is the depraved voice
That had ruled them all those lost years;
Now amidst forced quietude
They stare down their deep-rooted fears
And reform their attitude.
Beaming and cleansing above them
Is a banner, a vast shock!
Guided by Heaven’s fateful helm:
“The Knights of the New Epoch.”

(Dedicated to the sales staff the Epoch Times)

Atheism/Christianity Behind Arizona Shooting

What were the greater factors in our society leading to the killing of six people and injuring of 13 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson, Ariz. on Jan. 8?

Democratic commentators have implied that it was the over-the-top Republican rhetoric. Among other examples, Sarah Palin last year posted a map of key elections that had crosshairs over Giffords’ district, an extension of Palin's pre-election slogan “Don't retreat, reload.”

Did Palin’s website contribute to the shooting? Or is it a “blood libel,” as Palin said in response? Neither.

Palin’s original tone, implying violence against a political candidate, was tasteless, and the shooting in Arizona only made that apparent. It is unlikely that she will do something that stupid again, I hope.

However, suggesting Palin in any way caused the shooting is yet more tasteless politicking. Our culture is so permeated with unnecessarily enhanced violence and rage in movies, television, sports, literature, and music that you might as well take the Academy Award for Best Picture away from the violence-laden and fictional “No Country for Old Men,” which won in 2008.

When I look at the shooting in Arizona, I see the nihilism and self-proclaimed atheism of Jared Lee Loughner. If a man frustrated with life feels that he has no real soul and that he faces no real judgment from a higher force, then he is capable of any sick thing under the sun.

Feeling there are few options, Loughner and many other Americans have fled what at times feels like force-fed Christianity in our country for the seemingly sweet safety of nihilism and atheism. Thus, the problem is actually two-fold. We have been force-fed both Christianity and nihilism/atheism in our country.

To best serve the country, our leaders should broaden their perspective beyond this spiritual dichotomy and look at the ideas that can unite us.

They can start by looking at the Declaration of Independence. Based on this potent document, the rights we have as Americans are entitled to us based on the “Laws of Nature” and “Nature’s God” and given to us by the “Creator.” While this document was written by Christians, there is no mention of Jesus, the Bible, or any other exclusive concepts that are not held universal across most traditional religious and spiritual systems.

In an America where Nature’s God, not necessarily a Christian God, is given credence, the reality that good and evil do exist takes center stage, replacing the economic narrative that has proven amoral.

What would such an America be like? Let’s take Chinese leader Hu Jintao’s upcoming visit as an example. Given its mammoth size and continuing persecution of individuals for their spiritual, political, and ethnic backgrounds and for the mere desire for freedom, the Communist regime in China is easily the most evil entity on the planet.

Will the Obama administration make evil an issue? Most likely not because the narrative we are working with is an amoral one given to us by economics. Trade is an overpowering number one item on the agenda. National security is a concern to some extent and somewhere in the way back, in the talk-but-no-action area, is good and evil slapped under the quaint heading “human rights.”

Yet, if our trading partner is now continuing to butcher thousands of people for their spiritual beliefs, like Falun Gong practitioners, then what sort of moral integrity is left with which our government can seriously say you can’t kill people just because you don’t like them?

That’s the scary moral reality behind Jared Loughner and it is what our nation is now facing.

Full disclosure: I am a Falun Gong practitioner. If I was a Chinese citizen, I would probably be arrested and tortured, possibly killed.