Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Stay Woke Or We Will Perish.



By JStergis L.E.S.

From a distance it would seem that in recent years, America and the UK are both embroiled in national battles of Conservatives vs Liberals. But, a closer look into the details reveals a more pernicious battle at hand. This battle is between those who have money and power and don't want to share it  - and everyone else. All religious, social, moral, and economic principles are null and void when today's "Conservatives" are confronted on sharing money and power with the very masses they depend on. 

Here in the US, the once morally strong Republican party, the party of Lincoln, has devolved over the last 55 years.  They seem to be now be a party of unprincipled misfits, racists and malcontents. This descent may have started during the 1960's when many white Conservatives in the South and Midwest left the Democratic party. But, it quietly snowballed into an immovable object since the Reagan administration.  Once upon a time, there were honorable members of the party who served. But, they have either left, retired or died.  They have been replaced by people who have no principles whatsoever.  This purge continues to this day.  The primary goals of the new misfits are twofold: money and power, nothing more.

The sick, the needy, the disenfranchised, war veterans, laborers, teachers - are all background noise to be controlled to achieve the aforementioned two primary goals.  It is really sad.  Why?  Because it is healthy to have a room with a variety of opinions and cross-cultural ideas, so that we can better form our nation and create policies to include all. America, the country, does better when all Americans, the people, do better. 

But with this group, they spend every waking moment attacking any notion of progressive thinking that actually might benefit people struggling in daily financial, social and ethnic inequalities. It is hard to fathom that this current politicos actions are based on the same principles that Lincoln ruminated in his darkest hours during the Civil War.

Lincoln fought for the unification of our country. These people fight only for the grab of power from the majority. They even dared to fly the Confederate flag in our nation's Capital, during last January's insurrection. I do not believe this would have sat right with Lincoln, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan or either Bush. In fact, I know that it would not have sat right with any of them.

You can search online yourself, and see that all three of Reagan's children, and the administrators in charge of the Reagan library, all rejected the use of the Reagan name by the Trump administration. This is how far off the road we have allowed these people to go. Quite a number of you voters are complicit.  These people are terrible for government.  But, it's some of you out there who voted them in.

It is not Liberalism, or Conservatism that's destroying America. It's Nihilism and the complete rejection of laws, morality and long held democractic principles. Right now, it's the far Right leading the way in eroding these values. 

Everyday these new, so-called, right leaning politicians and their supportive media, spend countless hours making any positive ideas, slogans and principles be perceived as horrible or destructive.  Meanwhile they make their own morally decrepit ideas and principles sound beneficial for everyone. Yet, it is only they and their ilk who are the beneficiaries. Moderates and leftists who label themselves as "politically enlightened", "politically aware", "socially aware", and "liberal" on a daily basis are drawn out as life threatening political, and moral enemies.  It's insanity. These are our own people. Our own families and friends interwoven into our history. We are all Americans. 

Why morally decrepit?  Because these new politicians themselves are hiding, overlooking, and disregarding all the the same corrupt things, that they claim the other side is doing.  They cover for the most corrupt behaviors within their own party and within their own souls. 

No time in world history has any nation or empire been able to survive based on such blatant and overt corruption and hypocrisy.  This group do not want any check and balance of their own wrongdoings. They want zero accountability, while labeling everyone who doesn't agree with them, as mortal enemies to the common man who must be eviscerated. 

Only today's current political right can make the word or notion "aware" or "woke" appear to be a skewed ideology or the thinking pattern of an enemy of the state.  Being open minded is not a curse, nor is it a complete cure. It's just a better way of thinking to open dialog and work towards a resolution, than when you have a close mind. We all have to strike compromises in our personal and professional lives, without tearing each other down. Why should the political theater be any different?

I leave you all with this thought:  The antonym of "woke" is asleep. The opposite of open minded is close minded. Being woke is better than being a sleeping, close minded, malcontent pretending to know all the concerns of people around me. I would rather be woke and miss my mark, then asleep and miss it all. #staywoke

Folks, love must win. For if it doesn't, then there will be nothing left to fight for, except to serve the tyrants, or become one. 

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

"Displaced"

Photo is courtesy of Don Johnson and fellow blogger Jessica Brooks Johnson.  Thank you very much for your permission to use.
https://storiesfromtomorrow.com/
Full version of this poem will be in my upcoming book. 

"Displaced"
By JStergis 

Do you see the orange smoke in the sky?
How can this be, do you ever wonder why?

Why can't we ever see the truth?
The flames that affects me, also affects you.

What does it take for me to get through?
How much longer do we wait until there's nothing left we can do?

We're not ready to be displaced.
We cannot find a planet to replace.

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

"We Always Find A Way" by JStergis L.E.S


We Always Find A Way
By JStergis L.E.S 

Every generation
Of every nation 
Eventually faces a challenge or foe
That will forever define them so
And when darkness holds the day
We always find a way

A way to rekindle hope in the night
A way to bring back our soul to the light.


Every woman and man
Has to try to comprehend 
When they must take a stand
When circumstances demand.
For fear will create unlikely heroes 
And fear exposes those driven
by weaker egos.

Yet when darkness holds the day
We always find a way
A way to rekindle hope in the night
A way to bring back our soul to the light.


My child hold up your head
Things are not hopeless or sad 
As they may appear to be. 
Remember good follows bad, 
After the tears and blood shed.
Just like the ebbs and flows of the sea.

Just keep your eyes focused 
Every inch gained a better prognosis. 
Remember when darkness holds the day
We always find a way
A way to rekindle hope in the night
A way to bring back our soul to the light.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

"The Baron In The Tower" by John S LES

Photo by John S LES


"The Baron In The Tower"

By John S LES


Who's the baron sitting atop the golden tower?
He became a king wielding all kinds of power.
Stopping intellectual progress in just one single hour.
Sweet grapes of wrath, now suddenly gone sour.
So much greed and dirty deeds, makes you wanna shower.
We have local leaders, but to money they all cower.
We the People must take back our power.
Plant positive seeds with positive deeds
And grow them into flowers.
Stop the blaming and hate gaming -
Or our souls it will devour.
To give our children a future - we must empower!
Time to get busy doing,
Before we're in ruins -
Switching representatives is our choice.
Let Lady Liberty hear our voice
Time to stand up in this 11th hour!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

"Downpour" by John S LES

Photo by John S LES
"Downpour"

by John S LES


Evil follows us, sometimes overwhelms us
Like a downpour, or a heavy heart's pain.
But, we must keep our heads up,
Put our best foot forward,
Cause the Sun will surely follow the rain.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

"Love Was Here" by John S LES


"Love Was Here"

photo and article by John S LES


A recent visit to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, NY, formally the Pilgrim State Hospital, allowed me to look at how when love and positive direction work in unison, they are a powerful force.  When those two emotions divorce each other, they can leave nothing but ruin.  However, even in the ruins, you can witness the love, the life, the energy of people that used to exist.

Covering nearly a nearly 2,000 acres are numerous abandoned buildings and that once made this entire facility it's own, independent "city" within Brentwood itself.  In it's peak it housed some 12,500 patients, with a total campus population of some 16,000 people.  That's a larger population than many towns throughout the rest of Long Island, and across the United States.  Pilgrim State Hospital was created in 1931 to harbor the overflow of psychiatric patients from New York City.  Pilgrim State Hospital campus covered so much land and space t it's own independent operation so massive that it had it's own farm, complete with pigs, train station, police, firemen, church, water tower and cemetery.  It's campus borders touched four different towns on Long Island.

Today, only a few of main buildings remain operational.  The rest of the campus lays dormant, abandoned, slowly eroding to the laws of Mother Nature, vandals, trespassers, and forgotten life stories.  But, there once was love here.  There once existed a facility that for better or worse, for the good of the state of New York, housed working people, doctors, and patients.

Many will speak of the lobotomies and other medical practices that were done here.  Many of these procedures are no longer practiced and are now considered extreme and cruel.  However, there was a life here, a living campus of working people who were placed in a large and very isolated world.  For many who worked here in this small community - this wasn't just a job, it was a way of life.

Love was once here in these abandoned parts.  For more on this facility please view this website or this independently made YouTube video.  And of course enjoy my pictures below!

Photo by John S LES

Photo by John S LES




Photo by John S LES



Photo by John S LES



Photo by John S LES


Photo by John S LES



Photo by John S LES