CSCCS Update. My view: What the state did to us ( Joe Britt Jr., Val Armstrong, Eric Wallace-senft, James Mcginley ) before and during Standing Rock concluding with their arrest and savagery by the state February 23rd and since, we have had a lot of healing......

CSCCS Update. My view: What the state did to us ( Joe Britt Jr., Val Armstrong, Eric Wallace-senft, James Mcginley ) before and during Standing Rock concluding with their arrest and savagery by the state February 23rd and since, we have had a lot of healing to do, a lot of regrouping, rethinking, damaged control, rebuilding, recovery, collectively and individually.....

And we have had a lot of work to do, team-building, beginning to create a shared vision, evaluation of various land and team options although so far very preliminary.

It is my sense that a powerful shared Vision and team cohesion may be emerging.

Maybe much more in the next next several days but for now, it appears that his team of four that needs to grow rapidly with similarly committed, passionate, devoted Souls, this team of four is headed toward New England and upon arriving there will have evaluated maybe half a dozen or more alternative sites for their ability to best support creation of the First Community to begin when the weather is warm enough in May.

Much more funding is needed, to complete this trip, phase one, and to begin the construction, phrase two. More strong hearts and bodies are needed. But it appears that things are coming together and come hell or high water we will begin constructing somewhere in May.

Again I say, this is my view, and I speak for no one else.

Again I say I expect more to be forthcoming tomorrow.

Be advised, the four of us seem to have an appetite for nothing less then giving the world a final chance. This is based on a realistic assessment of all of us being right on the edge of a cliff. It is not based on some crazy idea that we know we will succeed although some of us may correctly have such a view. For me I simply know that I am unwilling to try anything less.

Again I say more clarity will be coming forth this early as tomorrow including opportunities for people to begin to more seriously join in with hearts minds and treasure to advance the probabilities of this project offering to the world what the world needs. Communities it starve the corporate capitalist State. Communities that feed the soul of all involved as completely as today's culture Stars those same Souls.

By the end of next week I expect that a mutual evaluation in what may be the spiritually and culturally most promising of our opportunities should be complete in the preliminary beer in northern Minnesota, and I expect we will be headed to potential opportunities in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and onward.

Without your involvement starting now, by sharing this and other similar posts over the next coming days, without you putting your back into this the potential will not pay realized.

I am learning that the more decent a person I can become in my actions, the more decent human being, the more I can be a mortal threat to the capitalist corporate fascist state. That's the path, now I just have to learn how to do it well.

I am learning that the more decent a person I can become in my actions, the more decent human being, the more I can be a mortal threat to the capitalist corporate fascist state. That's the path, now I just have to learn how to do it well.

Water protectors, I don't suspect that the following will make me more popular with you. But what.......

Water protectors, I don't suspect that the following will make me more popular with you. But what kind of brother would I be if I shied away from speaking what I consider to be important truth? Rarely if ever does a revolutionary Force emerge and last as a revolutionary Force for more than weeks or a couple of months. It quickly devolves into some form of echo chamber Social Club. Judging from the posts that I see on the internet I believe this is happening to the people that were in Standing Rock. It might not be too late to reverse the slide.

I perceive that anyone that professes to fight the Doom of corporate capitalism instantly defeats themselves the moment that they allow themselves a double standard. It is......

I perceive that anyone that professes to fight the Doom of corporate capitalism instantly defeats themselves the moment that they allow themselves a double standard. It is vanishingly rare that someone that understands himself as the opposition holds himself to as high a standard as they tell their opposition that they should stand to, let alone actually standing to a higher standard, a higher morality which would be really powerful. Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to be the revolution. The only power that the opposition to the corporate capitalist state can look to is moral power and we squander it and squander it and squander it and squander it.

Who or what is in control, is a horribly consequential thing, no? Some, of all ages, totally freak out if.....

Who or what is in control, is a horribly consequential thing, no?

Some, of all ages, totally freak out if they personally are not in control. Others, of all ages, totally freak out if some strong man, some Authority, an "expert," a "visionary," is not in control telling them what to do. Some freak out if institutional sorts of things are not in control, Academia, science come to mind.

I freak out when any of these are in control. At least on consequential things I do. I freak out.

I trust none of these things when they are in control.

What I trust in control is the human soul, The Souls of human beings, totally subordinating themselves to the well-being of the neediest among them, and hopefully, needfully, passionately devoted to a well-developed, mutually developed, vision of how to serve the larger Collective. I totally freak out when this is not the case, if what is it steak is consequential, and I never involve myself in anything less.

As a Young, Junior, executive in a large computer company I was told that yes, after all my whining, they would support correcting a large Consulting Group in the Pennsylvania area that served the national market for which I was responsible, if I would go and take charge of it. This was a terrifying Prospect. The group was literally hated throughout the country. It was going to take a miracle to turn this around and there was no time.

I remember marching into this room where most of these executive Consultants were far more senior and had far more years than I. I told them, I am not in charge here. What is in charge here is the mission that we have developed to serve our clients and our company. The one we have all just spent weeks in dialogue, expensive and painful dialogue, developing. If you are looking to me or some person to be in charge, "the " leader, this is not the right Organization for you any longer.

There was confused silence. But in not too many hours or days when they saw that I meant it, there was an explosion of energy, creativity, passion, proactivity, Effectiveness, and joy. These were decent people that had been told that they worked for a general manager prior, and that their job was to make money. When they saw that I meant what I said, through my actions, they experienced being profoundly empowered, respected, freed to fully utilize their abilities, to harness their souls their hearts their minds to serve other people.

In three months time this large organization went from being the most hated, to among the most revered groups in the company, as measured through extensive surveys.

Rare is the case when the things that we need to learn, the answers we need to find, are not on the opposite side of a perceived obstacle of pain, even of Terror. Sometimes......

Rare is the case when the things that we need to learn, the answers we need to find, are not on the opposite side of a perceived obstacle of pain, even of Terror. Sometimes when we find the loving, wisdom and courage to go through that obstacle rather than run in Terror from it, we find that the growth was more than worth the effort, and sometimes too, that the pain was much much less than we anticipated. True, if it doesn't kill you you grow, and if you don't risk pain, and sometimes even death, you don't grow.

I find the pain of the horror we've created for ourselves just almost unbearable. But I find doing......

I find the pain of the horror we've created for ourselves just almost unbearable. But I find doing what little I can to try and change the direction is enough to keep me going with joy. Teresa of Calcutta said, if I love until it hurts, there is no more hurt, there is only more love. I agree with the latter part. There's still nearly unbearable pain but it's less than the joy of loving.

By this sick culture we are taught to be afraid of disagreement, we are taught to be afraid of those who are different, ideas that are different, that which is unlike us. It has taken me......

[This is a wordy, but I think important, stream-of-consciousness that came out of some conversations I was blessed to have this morning with my companions.]

By this sick culture we are taught to be afraid of disagreement, we are taught to be afraid of those who are different, ideas that are different, that which is unlike us. It has taken me decades but at long last I  have learned to relish these, and to pretty well transcend the psychological pain that comes with doing so.

I fear not benefiting from these differences, not learning from them, not growing from them, fast enough. I suspected this is what I fear most of all. Why? Because I'm not nearly good enough to be the change in the world that I need to see. & I know I'm not smart enough to figure it out all by myself. And that nor is anyone else. There is a part that I must play but unless I can continue to find that in others which does not yet exist in me, and which is part of the solution that is needed, than I'm of no hope, but useless.

We must learn to relish our important differences.

What I am afraid of is the absence of courageous, compassionate, voracious search for the truth, often in potentially frightening dialogue, including courageously and compassionately and respectfully exploring the important differences between us that we might learn from each other and learn how to joyful fit with one another.

It is said that when two people are the same one of them is not needed. This is very true. I wish I had all the answers. I am so painfully aware that I do not. I am also painfully aware that no credit to me I have more than my share of the answers. But maybe, I hope, you have some of the answers that I lack and if I find the courage, if I find the wisdom to put my ego aside, and fearlessly engage with you to explore our differences, and if you are willing to do the same, maybe we can both become more useful to the future of creation. 

I find all hope in embracing a way of being that is opposite the fear of difference that our sick culture has so ingrained in us, and so values. Why? Not because I value all difference intrinsically. Donald Trump is very different than me and I don't value all of his differences, I hate many of them. I view them as cancer.

But everyone has, or had, the ability to pursue and learn the truth. Not my truth, Not Your Truth, but the objective truth that is out there according to the likes of Einstein and Jesus and Buddha and Gandhi , and that we can if we try very hard get closer to.

Gandhi said the truth is God. He said God is truth, and truth is God. There is no difference. Thereby he said that all hope is in people moving closer to the truth.

I believe that all hope is in this and only in finding a passion and courage to compassionately seek the truth in ourselves and others do we have a prayer of moving to a future worth living for the coming Generations.

In my experience doing this requires enormous courage and bearing the pain of our imperfect nervous systems that have been taught all sorts of reasons to fear being perceived as not having all the answers. Unless we fix this in ourselves real fast and develop a passion for pursuing the truth at near any personal cost, all hope has already been lost.

[Oh, people on the left, progressives, liberals, they pursue the truth in this way intrinsically? Yes, indeed they're certain they do. In case you suspect this might not be the case, you will find confirmation of that in a recent truthdig video of Chris Hedges speaking with the author of The recently published book, Postcards From the death of America, or something like that. I recommend it. It did not help my depression of the last week or so. Be warned.]

From my earliest memory pain is what I was afraid of, my own suffering, or that of people close to me , never death, I never then or now remember being afraid of my own death. I experience.....

From my earliest memory pain is what I was afraid of, my own suffering, or that of people close to me , never death, I never then or now remember being afraid of my own death.

I experience that my relationship to suffering, my own, maybe changing in a way that I find promising and even wonderful.

Weeks ago anticipating the possibility of tremendous suffering at the hands of the police state, my own suffering, and the potential of prolong suffering for years in prison as a consequence, I reported that all of a sudden I felt my spirit evolving. I began to find that if I looked to my left or my right I could see my children and their parents in Syria who's suffering will always exceed mine, and the parents and children in Palestine where it is exactly the same , and or the parents or children in u.s. Israeli prisons suffering tortures I'll never suffer no matter what. And that in doing this my Terror went away.

Today I had two teeth extracted. When the dentist looked at my x-rays and how deeply embedded The Roots were in the bone he almost groaned. He was a master. No one could have done a better job. Few could have done nearly as well.

But I have had similar teeth work in recent years and again, my relationship to my own suffering is changing. In anticipation of the pain I rapidly summon into my mind children and adults being savagely tortured in Israeli jails for simply being non-jewish human beings whose land the white settlers want at any price to the Palestinians. My worry about my own suffering and my experience of it diminished tremendously.

If this is a passing technique and in the future does not help me I will report this but I suspect it is a tremendous Evolution and gift for me.

For me the present, 2017, and the future, is the greatest emergency ever confronting Humanity or all of creation. One might say that the Cuban Missile Crisis was.....

For me the present, 2017, and the future, is the greatest emergency ever confronting Humanity or all of creation. One might say that the Cuban Missile Crisis was similar, but I disagree. Nuclear war has the Saving Grace of maybe Exterminating everything and eliminating all suffering, near instantaneously, or in just a few years. Unless some impossible Miracle or Miracles are worked now, 2017, radically altering the future, there will be Untold Generations living in material and psychological hell due to the ravages of uncontrolled corporate capitalism, global warming, and fascism.

I live this emergency, the urgency. I make it my business to live this emergency because no where else can I find the motivation, Clarity, guidance I need to control my pitiful, Breath by breath actions, or the intense providing Joy of trying to help.

My first visit to jail was 12 years ago at the Pentagon when I non-violently was protesting the military corporate Empire. It was nothing in retrospect, but it was pretty alarming to me, the jail part, at the time. Even back then that's so urgent I thought it was to try and stop the empire.

The urgency I feel regarding global warming drove me to occupy the Canadian embassy , the hosts of the earth killing tar Sands, for over 400 Days twenty-four hours a day 3 years ago, including a 50-day hunger strike that caused me to be hospitalized. And knowing that it was likely to be fatal,  passed on  cancer treatment  so that I could continue the vigil and hunger strike. yes, it turns out they were able to save me, mostly to the surprise of the doctors when they were able to begin treatment four months late. It had rapidly spread,  but not as far as they expected. Nobody should be impressed with this. Nobody was impressed with this though there were a couple of LA Times articles. But I don't do things to impress, I do things to fulfill the dictates of my soul as best they tell me to reduce, possibly reduce, the suffering of my Global family, present and future.

A recent situation has caused me to reflect on my life in a way that I haven't done in many months or probably years, in this particular direction. And what I remember is that I have known, painfully, throughout my adulthood, that the only place that I either fit, or feel fulfilled, is when two things are true:

1. There is by any objective measure an emergency which if not dealt with with impossible speed will cause tremendous suffering to individuals, such as the needless demise of a company or Department, or creation incinerating global warming, or the continuance of the genocide in US/Israeli Palestine....

2. The other element which often is not present even when the first one is, really usually is not present even when the first one is, is at least a core group of people that either Live the truth of the emergency, or that I can gently and quickly help see the truth of the emergency at which point they then live it with every ounce of their strength. The family emergency response, as I have written of for many many years.

When both of those elements are not present I am a fish out of water, a cause of dissension unintentionally but unavoidably, a cause of friction, absolutely miserable, and probably people around me become miserable as well.

I instantly withdraw myself from such situations when I determine that they are not going to be changed. In the late '90's I made such a decision, it in part was influenced by this and cost me roughly $300,000 per year. I didn't hesitate. It is not my purpose in life to cause other people discomfort, quite the opposite, and I am unable to allow even one second of my time, one breath, to not be fully utilized.

This has resulted in me fighting alone , many would see it as my choice, I understand it as a square peg not fitting in a round hole, but either way this has caused me to fight alone for most of the last 15 years, and I suspect this will be true for the rest of my days.

Epiphany, for me? The best scholarship I know on the historical Jesus, Dominic crossan of the Jesus seminar, says that the central feature, the central mission, of the man Jesus was.....

Epiphany, for me? The best scholarship I know on the historical Jesus, Dominic Crossan of the Jesus seminar, says that the central feature, the central mission, of the man Jesus was to preserve the one thing that those masses being destroyed by the Roman Empire could hold onto if they chose, their community, being family to one another, regardless of how incredibly difficult the Roman Empire made that through their savagery.

The communal meal was not symbolic, it was the central Ministry. His Central message was, you must not allow this savagery to destroy that which is most sacred, your unconditional loving, your being unconditional family one to another, especially the outcast, the enemy...

I have known and been impressed by this scholarly insight for many years. But just this morning several things are colliding in my mind, the fact that more than half of this country now lives in objective material poverty, the fact that the most joyous larger community that I have ever personally witnessed lived in considerable material misery at Standing Rock for months , that the most joyful body of people of any huge size that ever was on this continent were the Native Americans before Columbus arrived, and this recollection of Jesus teaching.

When 15 years ago I left a $300,000 a year career in Industry and became an elementary school guidance counselor in one of the country's largest and neediest elementary schools, Chester Pennsylvania , I was aware of a problem that I never adequately solved at the time, what did I want for these children, these materially poor children, did I want them to become part of the sick society that created them? I now have a much better understanding of the answer.

The answer is hinted at in a vision that I shared some days ago, ( please see Link in comments below).

When, as I hope occurs, I soon resume my travels across the country I expect to add to my itinerary places like Detroit where I think there may be some fertile ground for sewing/cultivating this seed, for helping the materially poor in cities and places like that to possibly see that their opportunity is not to seek the faux-Heaven, the actual hell, that Mammon tells us looks like the capitalist society, but the heaven that Jesus spoke of, from each according to their ability, to each according to their need. The world Gandhi hinted at, a world that has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for anyone's greed.

If those who would be like a Jesus, unconditional loving incarnate, if those who would be like Jesus Are One in a Million, If they.......

If those who would be like a Jesus, unconditional loving incarnate, if those who would be like Jesus Are One in a Million, If they have always been one in a million, If they will never be more than one in a million as all history suggests is the case, then the choice is to facilitate and Foster those one-in-a-million or to give up. Giving up doesn't interest me.

If the likelihood that I, or someone, everyone resisting the state, the status quo now, the white Colonial demons, if the likelihood........

If the likelihood that I, or someone, everyone resisting the state, the status quo now, the white Colonial  demons, if the likelihood is that such a person will be exterminated before their time, then freedom is in enjoying that time anyway. Finding joy in that time anyway. Making meaning for those in need in the world, anyway, no matter how short the time to do so.

Collaboration needed: High-effectiveness solar trailer... Potential funding, collaboration need. Thanks......

Collaboration needed: High-effectiveness solar trailer... Potential funding, collaboration need. Thanks to the savagery of the police state on February 23rd and a series of disasters that resulted , the solar trailer on my bike, and some of my bike, are pretty well destroyed. Although some of my affection for solar panels has greatly diminished, it is not entirely gone and the most important part of that vehicle for stimulating people's thinking about renewable energy is the trailer because the solar panels are so obvious. As many as half of the people in this country that could and should be switching from fossil fuels to  renewable energy, solar panels,  are prevented from doing so  by the fact that they rent and don't own their own property.  But as I did when I was in an apartment in Washington DC,  they could easily  pull a solar trailer behind their car or bicycle  charging batteries all day  and use those to power the appliances in their apartment. It may be sooner than later that I should resume my cross-country travel with that vehicle and it may well be soon that I should invest in the next generation of that trailer. I have learned a lot about the needs , including the need to be able to very very easily and quickly angle it toward the Sun, the need to protect the trailer from destruction from Midwest crosswinds and or the Winds of an occasional extreme storm. Needs that include quick and easy access to storage space underneath. Needs that include the ability to shift the solar panels three or four feet aft of the vehicle when traveling south so that multiple panels are not blocked by the sun midday and to solve the fishtailing problem that shifting such weight rearward can cause . Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.. I am pretty well prepared now through many months of painful learning to detail and prioritize key requirements. I suspect that a complete redesign is necessary. I suspect that  a quick prototype implementation which I would use would cost between 2 and $4,000 and I would be open to trying to raise and Supply such funds. I suspect that aluminum would be a key material and therefore someone that is able to work in aluminum. Please if you know of any persons that would be interested in collaborating on this project seriously with funds and or dollars please let me know. I have and never will have any commercial interest in this other than I would love to see it become commercially viable in itself or to stimulate products for others. Who ever collaborated would be welcome to any commercial interest. I don't know if this is a project that I will never devote myself to or if it is something that I will devote myself to very very very soon. As Eisenhower said, plans are worthless, but planning is everything, and I think I should be doing some immediate planning on this.  Mike Cobb Rex Mark Lucas  ( photos are moments before the state savagery was Unleashed.)

We try to do the impossible when we try to understand the other person from primarily our own perspective. We can only hope to understand the other person when we understand them from their own perspective.

We try to do the impossible when we try to understand the other person from primarily our own perspective. We can only hope to understand the other person when we understand them from their own perspective.

I believe it was Gandhi that said, I don't care what your religion is, what I care is that you practice it well. I agree with Gandhi and the problem with the world is that it is far too complex , and not one in a million people do.

I believe it was Gandhi that said, I don't care what your religion is, what I care is that you practice it well. I agree with Gandhi and the problem with the world is that it is far too complex , and not one in a million people do.

Everyone wants to be a Christian. No one wants to be Christ-like.

Everyone wants to be a Christian. No one wants to be Christ-like.

What if exactly the difference between those who follow Jesus and those who are Christians is that those one-in-a-million that follow Jesus......

What if exactly the difference between those who follow Jesus and those who are Christians is that those one-in-a-million that follow Jesus are those that are immediate to follow their own self disciplining moral impulses, and those who Jesus does not recognize are slow to do so? I'm sure that is the case. Why do not all but one in a million Christians follow Jesus? Because they do exactly what he commanded them not to do, they let something, in their case a church, pastor, a priest, a pope ... get between their own soul and what they experience as the Creator.