GOAL of PRIME DIRECTIVES

         On April 16, 2007, a massacre happened in Blacksburg, Virginia. A mother in Vietnam wrote to the Virginia Tech community sharing the sorrow and tears of that campus for she knew the loss of a child, a son, she lost to a bullet made in America.

          This is what this is all about.

           Prime Directives intends to go down a road as old as the mountains but ignored and grossed over in an attitude of arrogance. It is a road mocked but how can the mockers be proud of embracing failing ways?

           This way is so traditional and old fashioned, it is downright radical. A thinking likely to offend just about every person reading these words, maybe even inviting accusations of being un-American, anti-Christian and far worse when in fact this thinking is the height of patriotism and religious thought.

            Today’s world is a repeat of past times. No difference. Just easier to kill and maim. And with technology being what it is, easier and faster, it is to see the carnage.

           If we are serious in desiring to make the world a better place in which to live, we need to understand our means to this end are as ancient as the mountains. It is time to for a different approach. And found in those mountains right next to the means man uses to resolve conflict is another way too long ignored.

           A thinking believing a life focused on everything, excluding the spiritual, is a thinking making tomorrow the same as today with today the same as yesterday. 

           Our president and his people argue with the Pope about what Jesus would say about the wars in which the United States finds itself. Jesus and his Father are on our side, the president and his people say placing God in service to the president and his people, not them in service to God. 

            This president and his people embrace and further for self-profit, the idea that some lives matter less than others giving us the cause of all that is wrong in this world. Furthermore, neither the president nor his people possess a repentant heart, an essential element in the teachings of the Old and New Testaments, the Gospels and the Qur’an. 

             Meanwhile, the world is pulling itself apart. Antagonisms thrive between races, between ethnic groups, between people of differing sexual persuasions, between nationalities. The rich remain not only rich, but richer and fewer while the poor remain not only poor, but poorer with more of them. And the workers, the true producers, continue an endless and more difficult struggle to make ends meet.

              Conflict, in all its forms, continues using weapons more deadly with technology bringing benefits concealing grief. Lack of happiness sets in with feelings of despair, loneliness and uselessness spreading like a deadly virus.

             It is time to try a different way going forward achieving happiness. We can imagine a new way, making the imagined real. Man imagined the automobile and made it real. Man imagined going to the moon and made it happen. We can imagine a life of peace and make it real, placing us among the peacemakers.

           But to do this requires man seeing his intellectual faculty, far too often ignored, as a tool of worship given to us by Providence, walking away from the mindless repetition of the pulpit. Development of intellect leads to happiness, making not only the goal of happiness rational, but the means thereto rational.

            This is the goal of Prime Directives to imagine people, our neighbors, taking them as they are, not as desired, coming together sharing stories, concerns and being secure, materially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, making the imagined real. 

            This goal requires an agenda focused on the Spiritual Pillar of Life acknowledging this pillar is as important as the Physical (Material) Pillar to the happiness and advancement of man. This is the only agenda making sense due to the fact we are temporary creatures acting as if the temporary is forever. Many mock this way of thinking, but in the end the mockers are as dead as the mocked facing the same hereafter.

           It must be stated such a belief makes no sense without an agenda mandating involvement in the community. One can preach love, but preaching love is not love. Rather rescuing your neighbor from the calamities of life is love. 

Prayers for a child to survive starvation, disease, the bullet, and disease, are empty without taking these prayers, making them real, making them part of daily life, demanding daily concrete action.  

            To live a political life as if faith is unrelated results in unintended consequences such as 40% of those 45 and older living in loneliness. But the wealthy, the preachers, the therapists are doing their best to make God dead. Such fools they are.

            We are physical and spiritual beings. Living as if these two beings are unrelated leads to calamity. Religion is to be part of life just as provision of nourishment is to be part of life. Theology and the polity are one even if we do not see it and this not seeing it makes for a life of emptiness. 

            Prime Directives calls for a way of thinking not constrained by the boundaries of patriotism, religious dogma, and the sayings of momma and daddy. Rather come together with one purpose, one goal and that is to get to know each other. Once we know each other, we see what once was seen as differences were and are illusions.

           Each of us wake up in the morning, take care of nature’s call, brush our teeth, dress, brew coffee, feed the kids, get them to school, take them on the Sabbath, a day not the same for all, to worship a God not having the same name for all, but in the end all the same, with each looking upward, downward, outward and inward.

           Happiness as an end sought by all requires the means to this end be explored and defined. This begins with the exploration of the Five Pillars of Man acknowledging these Pillars are the foundation for a life of meaning and happiness, addressing where are we in history, why are we where we are, and what can we do to move forward answering the ultimate question, where do I go from here.

             But always there is a man out there somewhere saying that the man over there intends on killing your way of living. So go kill him.

            And in the end, we are right back where it all started, thousands of years ago, repeated endlessly. No progress there is.

                                          STATEMENT of PRIME DIRECTIVES

            We live in an eternity. Whom we are today, we owe to the people who came before us continuing to make history with our problems being no different than the problems faced by those who came before us. Concerns of shelter, food, health care, employment, security and happiness remain the same. 

             The politics of today contain the same arguments heard throughout history. The issues of today discussed in multiple forums are no different than the issues discussed tens, hundreds and thousands of years ago with words and actions being no different.

            Newspapers from Colonial Days in America to today’s newspapers reported and advanced the agenda of their owners and financial supporters. News Channels of today are no better. This has always been and continues.

Common to the world is a focus and attention on an agenda of greed, not the embracement of truth, embracing the same arguments and answers, tired and worn out, wrapped up in new and fresh paper with a pretty, new bow.

            The old tire words remain the same. This man is good. This other man is not good. We must go to war to be secure. Wars, division, poverty, and oppression continue with the same old words in response.

          All have and continue to care for their children, families, their dreams. All have and continue to face doubts and questions concerning issues of God and immortality. All have and continue to dare to have a genuine say in their government, in their community, in their lives.

         All ask the same question, not in the same manner, sometimes not consciously but subconsciously, the ultimate question, “Where do I go from here?”.  

          History is the record of man’s struggle to answer this ultimate question, recognizing it is the workers, the true producers, getting up each day to work creating the world in which we live. The workers built this world, a world struggling for justice. 

                                                   AGENDA OF PRIME DIRECTIVES

           Available to you and me is a door to be opened through which we can enter not as Americans, not as Christians, not as Jews, not as Muslins, but as a people seeing each matter, each has value, each is to be respected, and seeing forgiveness of our enemies serves us well and best. 

             It is my belief that walking together is the way to go. See that which unites, will it, and then, celebrate that which unites.

            Breaking from the ways controlling our lives, tired and failing ways, coming together to share our stories, our thoughts, our plans, our views proceeding into a world where each is heard and respected, placing into action the means to give the potency of our lives an actuality, is the agenda of Prime Directives.

            A thinking believing a life focused on everything, but the spiritual, is doomed to death. Focus on the spiritual through the intellect acknowledging worship of the intellectual is the true religion, resulting in the intellect providing the rules of living centering on the embracement and care of your neighbor.

             Meaning your patriotism, your religious convictions are open to attack. Focus is to be on the rules of nature applicable to man as the applicable to the flower give us the blossom with all its beauty and benefits.

             One rule unique to man, that is one attribute unique to man, is what we call love. It is this love that we pay tribute to in movies, plays, the back seats of cars and on, but this tribute is left at the door daily entering the world.

Sounds a little like Jesus. Sounds a little like Mohammed. Sounds a little like Buddha. Sounds a little like Moses. Sounds a little like common sense.

              We have a choice. We possess free will. Violence and despair do not need to be our lives, do not need to be the world of our children, do not need to be the world of our grandchildren.

             Each day of my life I work with many of God's creatures seeing with an eye not constrained by the bitterness of the hearts so dominate in our lives understanding each of us in our own way is as lovely as the spring morning. In this understanding, the world in which we live, where blood seemingly rains down more than the water of the rain, does not need to be our future. 

             Bringing together the people, organizing them into a force that cannot be ignored by the elite/rich and their politicians, is the life blood of this agenda. Acknowledging The Five Pillars of Man gives us the moral law with a supporting ethics. 

             Taken together making this ethics a habit of life not only provides happiness but answers the questions of where are we in history, how did we get here, what can we do to move forward answering the ultimate question, “Where do I go from here?”.

              The words of Pope Francis illuminate.

                         “Rivers do not drink their own water, trees do not eat their own fruit, the Sun does not shine on itself, flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other, no matter how difficult it is…Life is good when you are happy but much better when others are happy because of you.”                                

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                                                                   The American Dream       

       Need to organize to bring about a system where the worker defines his destiny, where the worker creates. Sound economic theory demands this. Historical necessity is at work here.

       Fulfill the American Dream beginning with respect for the worker with laws acknowledging the worker as the origin of wealth. Let the worker has his due. Let's get started and move forward.

                                                                        WAY FORWARD

       We are facing the foulest of our times conspiring to destroy that which is good and decent about our country, and this we cannot allow to happen.

       The dreams of the old, the young, the poor, the worker, the weak are in jeopardy of dying. And no one is there to stand up for them. They have no voice.

       Dreams uniquely American are dying meaning we must go forward with the courage uniquely American to provide the voice to silence the voice of the tyrants. 

       We are to go forward carrying on the fight against poverty, disease, and ignorance possessing a purpose common to all. It is this purpose we serve.

       The way forward is to stand with the old, the young, the poor, the worker, the weak understanding their dreams are common and shared.

       Too long we have talked about the glory and the rights of the working man. It is time to make this glory real. 

       Time to free this country from the suffocating bigotry of the past. To fight for the idea, we each possess value meaning we fight for ourselves by fighting for each other. 

       We must go forward not for profit and conquest but liberation doing so with faith in ourselves and in each other.  

       Focus on a peace in which freedom and justice lives in all.

       The few are people of greed and ignorance originating in racism and bigotry. They are to be conquered.

       Need policies and laws advancing the working man, the creators of our nation's wealth, recognizing the ability of the working man to competently direct his life.

       We have the ability and capacity to stand up for the weak against the wicked giving life to these dreams. 

       In doing so poverty, disease and ignorance flees. The glory of the worker is made real. Bigotry and the chains of the past are let go.

      We have a choice. We can engage in a life for money, fame, land, power, money, importance. 

       Or

       Seek truth requiring a mind and heart open and caring for all. 

       For a world where no man bows to another, where no man has his future determined by his birth, his happenstance. 

       Doubt and fear can no longer be our excuse.

       Focus on a peace in which freedom lives, and all know justice.

Greet and conquer the enemy of our country, the people of greed and arrogance grounded in racism, religion and country. 

       Seek policies advancing the working man not the rich.

       Believe in your ability to act. Go forward caring for our neighbor, 

       Hate, evil, the violence are there placed by the few to divide the many, you and me. 

                                                      Choose to Live for Your Neighbor      

        Reason implies thought and thought implies choice. Choice requires mental activity free of the cravings of passion and desires. 

       "All men are created equal", a man wrote. 

       But is the man in the carriage, the big car, equal to the worker in the mine, the mill, the man seeking to clean my windshield for pennies, the man who made the carriage, the car? 

       One has a marker upon death. One does not. 

       We can fight for ourselves or for each other, fight to be someone or for another to be someone, or the idea each possesses value.

       Our road will be as it has always been long and hard. The greed of the few is strong.

       You and I have the same fears and dreams. It is the dreams upon we need to build. Each of us has souls tried. 

       We each have a choice. Choice being another word for free will. Be a fighter or be a coward. 

       Let us fight to end conquest. To liberate all from the ashes. To be a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Let us not allow the temporal to keep us from this quest. Let us fight greed, racism, ignorance, to find a peace free of the schemes of unworthy men. Where all reap the fruits of their toil.

                                                                  I Am You. You Are I

       I am you. You are I. I will not turn on you whom I love and honor. I will not turn on the people of this country no more than my father, mother, brother, and sisters. 

       The conflict and tension between good and evil is not possible in the absence of free will. Ethics cannot be without free will making free will and moral responsibility of the same with justice not possible without free will. 

       And this free will is unique to man. 

       Reason implies thought and thought implies choice. Choice requires mental activity free of the cravings of passion and desires. 

       The freeing of the will, being of the evolution of man, is man's struggle to self-realization, either achieved based on conditioned thinking or thinking conditioned to be free. Will the Will to be free. 

       Let us pick up each and go forward knowing our ability to help each other defines us. Understanding there is no greater glory than a life and a death of one’s choosing. And this free will is unique to man. 

                                                        PEOPLE DID NOT LEAVE RELIGION

                                                                 RELIGION LEFT THE PEOPLE

       I saw dreams in the ashes of life.  

       I saw religions, Islamic, Christian, Hebrew, and Hindu, are of the One with the One being in all religions. The Koran and the Sermon on the Mount equally inspire. 

       I saw people of many religions speak of the existence and realization of purpose in a God centered life, each bowing before an over-riding authority. Each believed their God is almighty. I saw among all a harmony commanded by their God.  

       I saw people lose the candor of youth, of virtue, becoming engrossed in the vulgarity of narrow egotism keeping the man, the woman, toiling from childhood late into life captivated in the cages of religion and patriotism. 

        I saw people no different than I born into this world with no choice of where we are born, of whom we are born not understanding life is overwhelmingly decided for us. But each possesses the capacity to choose how to live and die. 

       I saw religion competing with an economy appealing to the wickedness of the soul. Saw in religion what I saw in the world, constant conflict between good and evil, the secular and the spiritual.

       In place of religion a new god became alcohol and drugs, replacing the minister, the priest, the rabbi with the therapists and alcohol counselor. 

       I saw people did not leave religion rather religion left the people. 

       I saw men of the Holy Clothe, the Church, uttering words destitute of wisdom wondering with stupid looks why people stay away from the church. 

       I saw in men and women, of seemingly impeccable honor and bigotry, lapses of judgment embodying a damaging dissension.

       I saw all religions have an afterlife, whether it be reincarnation, hell, heaven. or something else. Common to each, this afterlife depends on how life is lived.  

       I saw religious dogmatism silencing dialogue, festering intolerance and contempt. Nonetheless, I saw a path fostering inner life. 

       Each of us has as his goal peace and harmony, but this is done far too often through taking the spirit of your brother and making it your spirit without losing your spirit. 

       The forgotten and lowly contribute to the whole. 

       The whole is of the Divine Law defining human law, making human law subordinate to the Divine, the whole. Religion out of line with the four laws, eternal law, natural law, divine law, human law, fails.

                             SAW THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD IN ITS PEOPLE

       I saw that you like me have been taught not to steal, care for family, friends, and those beyond. I saw you celebrating the 4th of July with fireworks and hotdogs.

       I experience life as you. We are not enemies. Saw our timeless inheritance is Virtue.

       I saw people worshipping the real behind the shadows of life. The truth behind the fragments and shadows of the real. But many worship shadows as real.

       Saw truth and morality are inseparable each being one and universal. Brotherhood follows the grasping of the universal. Truth is not restricted to one book, one temple, one church, one ritual. It is in all as all is in the one.

       All seen and experienced is not possible without an Absolute. It is this Absolute that is the beauty in this world. 

       I saw division but also a commonality making each man an equal. I saw an element of discrimination, human in nature, not divine, giving us evil.

                                                                                       Free Will

       Born not free, we are. But once born, free we are to decide how to live and die. 

       I saw free will being unique to man. Good and evil are not possible in the absence of free will. Ethics cannot be without free will making free will and moral responsibility the same making justice not possible without free will.

       All is part of a whole, the universe, an evolutionary process. As the universe unfolds so do the parts thereof reaching self-realization. Like a flower, we grow. Unlike a flower, we have a choice how we grow.

       I saw a world of opposites. To everything that is there is an opposite. Hot-Cold. Dry-Wet. Limited-Unlimited. Odd- Even. Right-Left. One-Plurality. Male-Female. Resting-Moving. Straight-Crooked, Light-Darkness. Good-Evil. 

       Within these opposites implicit is the conclusion one cannot be without an opposite necessitating endless struggle. Life cannot be without death, nor death without life.

       Truth is found in the creation sustaining all. Saw religion is of our being. Mental and spiritual fellowship, balance and harmony, rest upon this truth.                                                                              

ut this net.