Thought For the Day: Ultimately, It Is the Responsibility of Individuals To Pull Themselves Up By Their Own Bootstraps, Make Responsible Financial Decisions, Pursue Eduction…and Fight To Break the Cycle of Poverty

“Ultimately, it is the responsibility of individuals to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, make responsible financial decisions, pursue education … and fight to break the cycle of poverty. Many poor remain poor because they do not know how to break the cycle of poverty. You don’t know what you don’t know. However, those who are determined to get out realize that it’s going to take hard work, perseverance, responsibility, and being savvy with the money they do have. They may only barely make it above the poverty line, but the example they set for their children — pushing them toward a better life and better opportunities — is breaking the cycle. This is the tenor of every successful immigrant story. It is as American as apple pie.” – Emmy Griffin

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First Principles: Neither the Wisest Constitution Nor the Wisest Laws Will Secure the Liberty and Happiness of A People Whose Manners Are Universally Corrupt

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” – Samuel Adams (1749)

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Thought For the Day: There Was A Time Not Too Long Ago When We Didn’t Have To Keep Telling the World About American Preeminence. They Saw It With Their Own Eyes

“There was a time not too long ago when we didn’t have to keep telling the world about American preeminence. They saw it with their own eyes. These days, while our nation wrestles with inflation, bank failures, a mind-boggling national debt, and a military more focused on sex and skin color than missiles and ships, China is setting its sights on global dominance.” – Brian Mark Weber

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First Principles: Were We Directed From Washington When To Sow, and When To Reap, We Should Soon Want Bread

“Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” – Thomas Jefferson (1821)

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One-To-One Hearted

Anyas Awakening - Stuck In the Cobwebs of My Mind
One-To-One Hearted
by Michael Doyle

There best belongs to be found
In the miss that comes around
Where nothing becomes the something
That brings the best of everything

So often we walk feeling perplexed
Unsure of how it all connects
But if we listen really hard
Our dreams show up like a wild card

At a distance we come to recognize
The truth of God before our very eyes
This despite the moments we must get through
Just to get ourselves to the point of get to

After every man's fall from God's grace
It's too often it's in the shame we embrace
We see ourselves seeking to cover the broken
That we are without any words needing spoken

Yet, God who knows us all the very best
Sees us as having somehow passed the test
We can stand by and believe in this toast
That Lord above forgives and loves us the most

Loving all humanity, His grace is sufficient
None of us are lacking. Nor are we deficient
Face-to-face with truth and having no disguise
The record is set straight with locked eyes

Thoughts of coming up short are counted mistakes
Lost up in our stumbles and all our heartbreaks
The Lord understands and offers His full grace
Knowing the more in store for us to embrace

Feeling lost without grace for debts of the past
We don't realize that these things don't last
It is our present that leads to fulfilling dreams
Filtered and nurtured for a future that seems

Stretched in our thinking and there's no mistaking
That the nets of faith will never be breaking
Spiritual maturity comes with patterns of deference
For the lessons learned deep in every experience

There are things of wisdom that we must come to know
Through God's strength as we begin to spiritually grow
This is the steps of path in our getting to started
At feeling the shaping of one-to-one hearted

Be helpful, don't even try to be perfect
Stay humble, don't always try to be correct
The fruits of our own labor have a good taste
And in them is a blessing that we must not waste

We are stronger than we allow ourselves to think
With God in our lives we take things to the brink
The Church is stronger than the challenges that come
We must simply have and keep our faith in the kingdom

(c) March 26, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Borkum - Don't Play With Fire In the Dark

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First Principles: The Same Prudence Which In Private Life Would Forbid Our Paying Our Own Money For Unexplained Projects, Forbids It In the Dispensation of the Public Moneys

“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.” – Thomas Jefferson (1808)

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Thought For the Day: Poetry Is the Shadow Cast By Our Streetlight Imaginations

“Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.” – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and painter (24 Mar 1919-2021)

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A Montage of Selective Outrage

Valmoor Harbor - - Freakshow at Dockside
A Selective Montage of Selective Outrage
by Michael Doyle

Have we finally got to the turn of the page
Living life cut by cut of selective outrage
It seems so, or at least I have this hunch
That a few bad apples have spoiled the bunch

We can do our best to never be offending
But who are we kidding? Or is it just pretending?
Triggered by words lack a punch as we simply say
We have to be careful of all the wolf traps at play

Everyone's scared looking for some safer space
Keeping all of our thoughts locked behind the face
Tweeting out woke tweets on slave made phones
It's a woke wash in the world of vapid clones

So many businesses pushing corporate social screed
Pretending their best that profit is not their need
Taking out preapproved stances that are rarely meant
While deceptively pretending products are heaven sent

In a misappropriation of passed out cross-cultural lies
We never find out that yoga pants do for our lazy thighs
Against -isms of every sort and speaking against all hate
$100 yoga pants are affordable to the poor when it's too late

Now even comedians are afraid to speak truth in their show
While the modern world is addicted to attention's flow
We used to want love but likes now breed more satisfaction
No thinking or feeling, as social media trolls for reaction

The world has evolved into something less than crass
Dying inside of attention, we've forgotten all class
Infamous and hate-filled, we call this out as glory
All to seek the feigned attention and become the story

Excellence has somehow fallen to the rank of number three
In this hit parade and takes work to reach for proficiency
It's easier to be a "victim" falsely acting out in drama
At the price of distracting from those who are really in trauma

Paper cuts are overflowing the space of the emergency room
And if this keeps up, all these victims will spell out our doom
The lowest common denominator has come to roost and to rule
When the king of rap takes us all as truants in his fatal school

(c) March 25, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Hazardous 2022 - The Rusted Trace of Memory
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Born In the Rockies (Part I)

White  Binemust - Climb Every Mountain
Born In the Rockies (Part I)
by Michael Doyle

Spring has come with this morn
As another young life is born
Each step in the Rockies must be solved
At every turn, there are tests to be resolved

Every opportunity is used to hone skills
In Mother Nature's test of wills
All of the care of Rocky Mountain diligence
Keeps the babies safe under mother's vigilance

There in the beauty and splendor of the wild
Every Rocky Mountain mother tends her child
The first steps are taken in February freeze
As Sandhill Cranes are locked in ice and breeze

Flocked together as they are for sake of security
Opened eyes keep the flock safely in their liberty
Couples for life call into the morning's light
Waiting for the decades long answer that brings delight

Signaling heads beckon the flock's long journey
As has been the family's springtime destiny
Countless generations have taken this flight
For thousands of years in the morning's light

(c) March 25, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Borkum - Red Crowned Crane Greeting

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Thought For the Day: The Judeo-Christian Principles Upon Which Our Country Was Founded Teach Us To Be Tolerant and Compassionate, But They Don’t Tell Us To Abandon Common Sense

“The Judeo-Christian principles upon which our country was founded teach us to be tolerant and compassionate, but they don’t tell us to abandon common sense. If we hope to change this corrosive course, we have to start by acknowledging a simple fact: The human species populated the world and created a civilization, for better or worse, through the union of man and woman. That was no accident. It was by design.” – Peter Lerniska

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