{"id":235629,"date":"2023-05-22T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=235629"},"modified":"2023-05-19T03:18:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T02:18:00","slug":"the-coca-cola-ization-of-god-bless-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/05\/the-coca-cola-ization-of-god-bless-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coca-Cola-ization of \u201cGod Bless America\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever controls the information, controls the imagination.\u201d<\/em>
\n–George Orwell<\/p>\n

\u201cLogic will get you from A to B.\u00a0 Imagination will take you everywhere.\u201d<\/em>
\n–Albert Einstein<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine there\u2019s no countries\u2026 It isn\u2019t hard to do\u2026.<\/em>
\nNothing to kill or die for\u2026. And no religion too\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine all the people\u2026 living life in peace\u201d<\/em>
\n–John Lennon<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Preludes<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    17 May 2023 –<\/em> \u201c\u2019We hold these truths to be self-evident,\u201d Jefferson wrote in his Declaration of War (better known as \u201cThe Declaration of Independence\u201d).\u00a0 He continued: \u201c\u2026that all men are created equal.\u201d\u00a0 (Notice he did not write \u201call men and all women are created equal.\u201d\u00a0 In thousands of years of \u201chuman civilization,\u201d no one had ever thought so!)\u00a0 He went on to list the \u201cinalien\u201d-babble-babble \u201crights\u201d that \u201call men\u201d were \u201cendowed\u201d with; viz.<\/em>: \u201clife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Of course, everyone in \u201cthe People\u2019s Congress\u201d knew what \u201clife\u201d was, but what, exactly, did the best \u201cwriter\u201d among them mean by \u201cliberty\u201d?\u00a0 Or, even more puzzling, what did he imply by \u201cthe pursuit of happiness\u201d?\u00a0 Was there universal agreement about such matters?\u00a0 Did anyone demur?\u00a0 Not even Patrick Henry, who had set the stage for revolution a year earlier, declaring \u201cGive me liberty, or give me death!\u201d<\/p>\n

    No one questioned Jefferson\u2019s prose.\u00a0 He was considered one of the smartest men in the assembly–highly educated in the Law!\u00a0 Also, at 33, he was one of the richest men in the colonies (with almost as many slaves as George Washingtonmore to do his bidding and keep the plantation humming)–thanks to his own inheritance and his marriage to his smart, attractive, wealthy wife, Martha.\u00a0 Older, probably wiser, men like John Adams and Benjamin Franklin helped hone the language of the final draft (they\u2019re rarely credited) and the document passed unanimously.\u00a0 The cannons fired in celebrations, the flags were raised\u2026and the war began\u2026.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThese are the times that try men\u2019s souls,\u201d Thomas Paine would write a few years later, while surveying the spoils and carnage at Valley Forge.\u00a0 \u201cThe summer soldier, and sunshine patriot, will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country.\u00a0 But, he who serves it now, deserves the love and honor of men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Great words! \u00a0Beautiful words!\u00a0 Poetic words that I learned by heart in my early teens.<\/p>\n

    A little later, in my mid-teens, I began to wonder: \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

    Also: \u201cWhy is the textbook, we\u2019re required to read in my 12th<\/sup>-grade \u201cSocial Studies\u201d class in Miami Beach, \u00a0Florida\u2026 why is it titled, \u2018Communism vs. Democracy\u2019?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we keep the genres <\/em>consistent?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t the book be called, \u2018Communism vs. Capitalism\u2019?\u00a0 Or–based on all the implications I\u2019d already read in the book–\u2018Totalitarianism vs. Democracy\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 I did not ask my \u201cSocial Studies\u201d teacher\u2026. \u00a0He did not encourage such questions!<\/p>\n

    Had I ventured a bit further down Education\u2019s \u201cYellow-Brick Road,\u201d I might have tidied my question with a little quote by Albert E.:<\/p>\n

    “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space.\u201d
    \nIf the teacher had not gawked by then, I would have continued:<\/p>\n

    \u201cHe experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

    And, Albert\u2019s crucial denoument<\/em>:<\/p>\n

    \u201cOur task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”<\/p>\n

    In fact, I had a growing and gnawing awareness of Einstein\u2019s \u201cprison\u201d of \u201cdelusion\u201d from a much earlier time\u2026.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Changing \u201cfacts\u201d and hidden \u201ctruths\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u201cIf the facts don\u2019t fit the theory, change the facts.\u201d –Albert Einstein<\/p>\n

      I was 11\u2026. We had just seen an amusing and touching movie called \u201cCalamity Jane.\u201d\u00a0 I felt I had learned a little about the way \u201cbig people\u201d loved.\u00a0 I liked Calamity\u2019s transformation from roughneck-rebel character, wearing funny, masculine cowboy clothes, to a sweet woman. \u00a0And Doris Day\u2019s rendition of \u201cOnce I Had a Secret Love\u201d kept playing in my head.<\/p>\n

      Now, Mom was treating my younger brother and sister and me to a favorite neighborhood Deli meal of corned beef, rye bread, French fries and either Coke or Pepsi.\u00a0 (A small glass of Coke was 15 cents, and Pepsi was 12!\u00a0 That day we splurged–Cokes all around!)<\/p>\n

      It was a pleasant evening, and we could walk through our middle-class neighborhood, up the big hill (especially \u201cbig\u201d for children!), walking back to \u201chome-sweet-home.\u201d\u00a0 There was no thought about \u201csafety.\u201d\u00a0 I had learned about \u201cour friend, the policeman\u201d in the first-grade.\u00a0 Occasionally, we would hear the horse clopping on the street, and the cop in the saddle would nod his smiling greeting.<\/p>\n

      I was surprised, a few days later, when my friend, Alan, started talking down \u201cCoca-Cola.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt\u2019s got cocaine in it!\u201d he averred.\u00a0 \u201cAnd all kinds of stuff!\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cWhat\u2019s cocaine?\u201d I wondered\u2026.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt\u2019ll make you high,\u201d he averred again.<\/p>\n

      \u201cYou mean \u2018taller\u2019?\u00a0 It\u2019ll make me taller?\u201d<\/p>\n

      He laughed.\u00a0 \u201cIf you wanna be taller, get some stilts!\u201d\u00a0 He looked at me with the hauteur<\/em> of one who was 6 months older!\u00a0 \u201cLook,\u201d he said, amicably, \u201cit\u2019s got all kinds of junk in it\u2026and we don\u2019t even know what\u2019s in it!\u00a0 The formula\u2019s locked away!\u00a0 It\u2019s at Fort Knox or someplace like that!\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cI heard it has a lot of sugar,\u201d our friend, Judy, chimed in.<\/p>\n

      \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with sugar?\u201d I wondered.\u00a0 \u201cIsn\u2019t that in ice-cream?… My father puts it in his coffee!\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt\u2019ll make you fat!\u201d Alan said.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIt can give you cancer!\u201d Judy averred.\u00a0 Her father was a doctor.\u00a0 We stared in awe\u2026.<\/p>\n

      But\u2026 I didn\u2019t understand!<\/p>\n

      How could we live in a world like that?\u00a0 A world where someone could sing like Doris Day about her \u201csecret love\u201d and a world where we couldn\u2019t trust our government to tell us the truth about what we were eating and drinking?<\/p>\n

      It would be a few more years before I discovered Socrates:<\/p>\n

      \u201cThe secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      Such views were anathema to his fellow Athenians who sentenced the barefoot, \u201chippy\u201d-street-philosopher to death.\u00a0 Socrates took the sentencing cum grano salis.\u00a0 <\/em>Perhaps he\u2019d meet Achilles in the underworld! he told his friends–those who wanted to help him flee\u2026.<\/p>\n

      \u201cHope springs eternal in the human heart,\u201d the poet, Pope, would write millennia later\u2026.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Where Are We Now?<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Some 14 weeks into my 26-weeks\u2019 visit to Japan, I heard about \u201canother mass-shooting in Texas.\u201d\u00a0 Another one?\u00a0 The reporting on You Tube was matter-of-fact, almost blas\u00e9.<\/p>\n

        I reflected on my first week\u2019s revelation: walking back and main streets of a middle-class suburb of Tokyo–the world\u2019s most populous city–I felt safe and at-ease.\u00a0 I could barely speak the language, but I felt courtesy, even respect, from those who nodded to me–young and old.<\/p>\n

        I could detect curiosity in the eyes above the still ubiquitous Covid-preventing face-masks; but it was always polite <\/em>curiosity.<\/p>\n

        Quite a difference from decades before–when I had taught English at a Japanese college (later, a university) in Sapporo.\u00a0 Walking down a familiar street one day, a little later than usual, I passed boys from the junior high-school, playing in the schoolyard.\u00a0 One of them sighted me, and he pointed at me and called to his companions: Gaijin-ga!\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cGaijin\u201d <\/em>(foreigner) was understandable.\u00a0 But the \u201cga!\u201d <\/em>was exclamatory–not meant in a unique way, but in a very peculiar way!\u00a0 Soon, scores of young teens were standing at the linked fence, staring, and pointing and wondering: What a world!\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Since those days, Japan has accelerated through its \u201cRoaring 90s\u201d when it had a decade of phenomenal economic growth and world-wide attention, to a much slower pace of growth, an aging and declining population and growing awareness of its own vulnerability in a rapidly changing Asia.\u00a0 (North Korea is nuclear and China challenges US hegemony in the Pacific and Asia.\u00a0 After the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan swore off nuclear weapons over 7 decades ago.\u00a0 The U.S. maintains a \u201cdefense force\u201d on the southern island of Okinawa, but, on the world stage, Japan consistently advocates for peace.<\/p>\n

        A short time after the most recent \u201cTexas mass-shooting,\u201d I was surprised to read of the number of deaths by gunfire in 2017: in the U.S. there had been 15,000; in Japan, there had been 3!\u00a0 (A little later, I would learn that the U.S. had surpassed its dismal 2017 annual record by May of 2023!)<\/p>\n

        At the airport in Tokyo, I had noted the police scattered here and there at different stations, surveying the arriving passengers–Japanese and foreigners.\u00a0 No hostility, no threats; just careful scrutinizing.\u00a0 And all the officers had holstered pistols.\u00a0 No sight of an automatic rifle.<\/p>\n

        Firearms are outlawed in Japan.<\/p>\n

        I thought fleetingly, regrettably, of an article I had posted at a couple of fine sites 4 years earlier: \u201cRepublicrats: Begin Anew!\u00a0 Fix Infrastructure!\u00a0 Work Together on Two Crises Now: The Porous US Border and Archaic Gun Laws!\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Had our politicians and mass-media mouthpieces<\/p>\n

        lost the arts of inquiry and debate?<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. What Next?<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \u201cGive me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely,<\/em>
          \naccording to my conscience, above all other liberties.\u201d<\/em>
          \n–John Milton<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

          So\u2026.\u00a0 The master poet of Paradise Lost<\/em> had answered Jefferson\u2019s conundrum about \u201cliberty\u201d centuries before the lawyer had proposed it!<\/p>\n

          One of the great shocks of my mid-teens was the President\u2019s assassination.\u00a0 My children-of-immigrants\u2019 parents–my Sicilian-Catholic father was cynical about the US political system and politicians and newsmen (they were almost always \u201cmen\u201d back then); my Ukrainian-Jewish mom had been an ardent fan of F.D.R. in her teens but had changed with time and circumstances and had voted for Nixon.\u00a0 I was too young to vote, and I didn\u2019t know whom to trust anyway!<\/p>\n

          I came to like Kennedy better as his first term evolved and the Vietnam War unraveled. \u00a0I especially liked him after an interview he gave the foremost newsman of his time–Walter Cronkite.\u00a0 In that interview, he had asserted that he did not think it necessary for American boys to do the fighting Asian boys should do!\u00a0 He was determined to withdraw American forces from Vietnam as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

          I don\u2019t believe there was any mention of that interview in the \u201cWarren Report\u201d that, theoretically, examined the \u201cwhat\u201d and \u201cwhy\u201d of what had happened on November, 22, 1963.<\/p>\n

          \u201cA road not taken\u201d!<\/p>\n

          Neither was there much ado, much probing, of \u201clone assassin\u201d Oswald\u2019s complaint that he was a \u201cpatsy,\u201d i.e., that he had been \u201cset up.\u201d\u00a0 Jack Ruby\u2019s bullet found him before he had a chance to \u201cspill the beans\u201d about whom–or, what agency–had set him up.<\/p>\n

          A few years before those speculating days, I had read Jim Bishop\u2019s excellent book, \u201cThe Day Lincoln Was Shot.\u201d\u00a0 I recalled that Boothe, jumping off the balcony where he had just exploded Lincoln\u2019s brains, landing on stage, had pompously and theatrically declared to the baffled and terrified Ford\u2019s Theater audience: \u201cSic semper tyrannis!\u201d <\/em>(\u201cThus, always to tyrants!\u201d)<\/p>\n

          What a difference!\u00a0 A famous actor\u2019s proud declamation after his heinous act vs. a confused, young man\u2019s confession; viz.<\/em>, \u201cI\u2019m a patsy!\u201d\u00a0 (I\u2019ve been used!)<\/p>\n

          I don\u2019t believe anyone has reflected much on the discrepancies and curiosities during the past 60 years of undisclosed documents\u2026.<\/p>\n

          (One of the few to break the mold has been our national\/international anti-war hero, Oliver Stone–journalist, commentator, movie director.\u00a0 Another intrepid inquirer was the journalist, Dorothy Kilgallen.\u00a0 We learn more about her courage and persistence day by day.\u00a0 The mysterious circumstances of her premature death still need to be examined.\u00a0 As does the death of Marilyn Monroe\u2026and too many others!)<\/p>\n

          So many questions\u2026and so little time!\u00a0 Time may be our ally\u2026 Time may be our adversary\u2026. Time is what we work against\u2026or work with.<\/p>\n

          I was appalled during the Kavanaugh hearing to choose a new Supreme Court Justice.\u00a0 A confused, and confusing, female \u201cwitness\u201d testified before Congress about Kavanaugh\u2019s questionable behavior towards females during his high-school days!\u00a0 After a male colleague of Hawaii\u2019s Senator Hirano objected to the \u201cwitness\u2019s\u201d cloudy memory, Ms. Hirano haughtily declared: \u201cMen should sit down and shut up!\u201d<\/p>\n

          Did I hear that correctly?\u00a0 What was the first article of our Constitution again?\u00a0 Freedom of speech?\u00a0 Or was it, \u201cSit down and shut up!\u201d?<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Where does this end?<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Back to the beginning\u2026.\u00a0 When \u201cI was young and easy under the apple boughs, and happy as the day was long, the night above the dingle starry\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

            Back to the pristine days when one could wonder at the magnificence of a Shakespearean sonnet, a Dylan Thomas poem, a van Gogh painting, a deaf, \u201c9th<\/sup> Symphony\u201d composer.\u00a0 One could wonder, one could ask questions and explore\u2026and. the best teachers, the best guides, were happy to explore the world with such seekers.<\/p>\n

            Can we get beyond the \u201cmind-forged manacles\u201d of our present molded and moldy world?<\/p>\n

            My parents were high-school graduates who had learned the basic skills–“reading, writing, arithmetic\u201d — and, also, they felt they had a right to question–their teachers, political leaders, religious leaders, et. al.\u00a0 Back then, in a public high school, students studied \u201crhetoric,\u201d the ancient art of oratory, such as Cicero had mastered). \u00a0They could join debate teams, and argue persuasively (or not) before their teachers, classmates, family, et. al.<\/p>\n

            In the early \u201850\u2019s, on our big-box-very-small-screen-black-and-white TV, we\u2019d watch stout, but hardy, Kate Smith, perform Irving Berlin\u2019s 1938 classic, \u201cGod Bless America!\u201d\u00a0 (With the \u201cwar-spirit\u201d stomping across Europe, Berlin had revised a manuscript he had ferreted away, hopeful in the mounting crisis that he could inspire gratitude, light and courage in his countrymen to avoid the scourge of war, to cherish the blessings of peace.<\/p>\n

            Decades later, \u201cthe 2nd<\/sup> American anthem\u201d would be banned from the NBA\u2019s televised play-offs!\u00a0 I needed to digest that!\u00a0 It was okay for the kids to watch grown men dribble basketballs around a court, making millions of dollars for such consummate dribbling, but, God forbid they should hear a song with the words \u201cGod bless\u201d in it!<\/p>\n

            And, a few years down the Beatles\u2019 \u201clong and winding road,\u201d we have teachers\u2019 unions assuring our compliant news media that teachers know what is best for their students when they present \u201cdrag-queen shows\u201d to fourth and fifth graders; furthermore: \u201cbigoted\u201d or \u201cignorant\u201d or \u201creligious\u201d parents have no right to complain!<\/p>\n

            And, one phrase echoes through the labyrinths of absurdities! \u00a0The phrase of a silly mayor who insisted that the BLM riots in cities across the U.S., the riots incinerating cities, destroying livelihoods for thousands–blacks and whites and whomever–killing scores of innocents were, in fact, merely a \u201csummer of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

            And I recalled the first time I\u2019d heard and read that phrase, back in 1967.\u00a0 One of the semi-credible \u201cnews\u201d sources back then–Time <\/em>or Newsweek–<\/em> had a picture of \u201chippies\u201d–young people \u201cwith flowers in their hair,\u201d heading for a music festival in Woodstock, Vermont.<\/p>\n

            The following year, the \u201csummer of love\u201d would be stained by the blood of innocents–victims of a crazed hippy cult-leader named Charles Manson, whose manic, dribbling followers scribbled \u201cKill the pigs!\u201d across the walls of their victims\u2019 homes, in the blood of the victims–young and old–whom they had tortured, mutilated, and killed\u2026.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Being True To One Another, Giving Praise and Truthful Witness<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Contemplating his own raucous and divided times, poet and critic Mathew Arnold–one of Britain\u2019s best–spent some 20 years writing and re-writing his most famous poem, \u201cDover Beach.\u201d\u00a0 (For serious artists, meaning, impressions [as in \u201cImpressionism\u201d], rhythms [of words, brush-strokes, music], timing [including the best time to interact with peers and audience] –all are consciously and sub-consciously worthy of consideration.)<\/p>\n

              How would the imperial wars between the European super-powers end?\u00a0 More revolutions and interventions in the colonies, more royalty guillotined?\u00a0 The rhythm of the waves on England\u2019s \u201cDover Beach\u201d evokes in Arnold a sound great Sophocles must have heard, striding along the Aegean Sea a couple of thousand years before:<\/p>\n

              \u201c\u2026 <\/em>the turbid ebb and flow<\/em>
              \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Of human misery\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

              How shall we transient beings respond–then and now?<\/p>\n

              \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe Sea of Faith<\/em>
              \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Was once, too, at the full\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

              \u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Arnold laments\u2026.\u00a0 But, centuries of religious wars, scientific and commercial \u201cadvancements,\u201d and the \u201cSea of Faith\u201d has been waning and draining.<\/p>\n

              Arnold\u2019s considered solution is simple, timeless and profound:<\/p>\n

              \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAh, love, let us be true<\/em><\/p>\n

              To one another! for the world, which seems<\/h4>\n

              To lie before us like a land of dreams,<\/em>
              \nSo various, so beautiful, so new,<\/em>
              \nHath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,<\/em>
              \nNor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;<\/em><\/p>\n

              And we are here as on a darkling plain<\/p>\n

              Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,<\/em>
              \nWhere ignorant armies clash by night.<\/em><\/p>\n

              \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I.e.<\/em>: Begin where we are, with those with whom we\u2019re interacting.\u00a0 Recognize the delusions, and seek to rectify.\u00a0 Understand: \u201crecognition\u201d is the first step in cognition.\u00a0 Recognize differences, and seek to reconcile.\u00a0 Recognize wounds and seek to heal.\u00a0 In Martin Buber\u2019s words, recognize and respect: \u201cI And Thou.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

              Show respect for those caught up in \u201ca land of dreams.\u201d\u00a0 To those of different generations, time-zones, races, genders: recognize the difficulties–the \u201cconfused alarms of struggle and flight\u201d — and, \u201clet us be true\u201d –to ourselves, to those we \u201clove,\u201d to those we would teach, and from whom we would learn.<\/p>\n

              In my teaching days–at a high school in Massachusetts, a junior high in San Francisco, colleges in Georgia and Japan, universities in Florida and Japan, and voluntary prison work in Florida, I relished the opportunity to teach a little etymology to those who wondered about the meaning of it all.<\/p>\n

              I\u2019d write the word \u201ceducation\u201d on the blackboard.\u00a0 (Yeah–chalk and blackboards way back then!)\u00a0 \u201cThe root of the word is ducere — <\/em>pronounced do-kerr-ay,\u201d <\/em>I\u2019d explain.\u00a0 \u201cMeaning, \u2018to lead–like aqueduct<\/em>, etc. And \u2018e\u2019 or \u2018ex\u2019 means out<\/em>.\u00a0 So, \u2018education\u2019 means \u2018to lead out<\/em>\u2026\u2019 To lead out of darkness, out of ignorance\u2026to greater understanding.\u00a0 That\u2019s the challenge.\u00a0 Can we assist others and ourselves to meet that challenge?\u201d<\/p>\n

              Artists have been grappling with these problems since Jacob wrestled with the Angel: Sophocles in his dramas, Robert Frost in his homespun poems:<\/p>\n

              \u201cMen work together, I told him from the heart,<\/em>
              \nWhether they work together or apart.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

              \u00a0<\/strong>Auden put it precisely and beautifully in his poem honoring Yeats in war-torn Ireland:<\/p>\n

              In the deserts of the heart<\/em>
              \nLet the healing fountain start,<\/em>
              \nIn the prison of his days<\/em>
              \nTeach the free man how to praise.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

              \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTeach the free man how to praise.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0The best poems, the best words, the best works of Art resound in our minds and hearts and can guide us through the labyrinths of deception\u2026.
              \nAristotle put it in a nutshell: \u201cLiterature is a form of art whose purpose is to describe, represent, or comment upon a value, event, or experience through the imaginative use of language.\u201d<\/p>\n

              Too-often emulated, too-rarely matched, Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran wrote in \u201cThe Prophet\u201d\u2026 some of the best thoughts about inquiring, teaching, learning and sharing:<\/p>\n

              On Giving <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Kahlil Gibran<\/a>\u00a0– 1883-1931<\/p>\n

              Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving.
              \nAnd he answered:
              \nYou give but little when you give of your possessions.
              \nIt is when you give of yourself that you truly give\u2026.
              \nThere are those who give little of the much which they have\u2014
              \nand they give it for recognition
              \nand their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome\u2026.
              \nThere are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward\u2026.
              \nAnd there are those who give and know not pain in giving,
              \nnor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
              \nThey give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space\u2026.
              \nIt is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding\u2026.
              \nSee first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
              \nFor, in truth, it is life that gives unto life\u2026.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

              ________________________________________<\/p>\n

              \"\"<\/a> Gary Steven Corseri\u00a0is a member of the\u00a0<\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 He is the grandson of Ukrainian-Jewish and Sicilian-Catholic immigrants.\u00a0 Gary has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and his dramas have been produced on\u00a0<\/em>PBS-Atlanta and in universities, high schools and Little Theaters.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels, 1 full collection and 1 prize-winning chapbook of poems.\u00a0 His poems, articles, fiction and dramas have appeared in hundreds of global publications & websites, including:\u00a0 <\/em>Countercurrents, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Transcend Media Service<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 He has taught at universities in the U.S. and Japan, and in US prisons and public schools.\u00a0 He has worked as a grape-picker in Australia, a gas-station attendant, and an editor. Contact:\u00a0<\/em>garyscorseri@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Can we make the best choices without sufficient information and imagination? Governments and media seem hell-bent on suppressing adequate information! Can we work together to imagine a better world: to honor truth, inquiry, dialogues and expositions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":223221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1521,70],"class_list":["post-235629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-coca-cola","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235657,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235629\/revisions\/235657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}