“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson (1798)
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First Principles: In Questions of Power, Then, Let No More Be Heard of Confidence In Man, But Bind Him Down From Mischief By the Chains of the Constitution
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Bind, Chains, Confidence, Constitution, First Principles, Heard, Mischief, Power, Question, Thomas Jefferson
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Thought For the Day: Who Makes Quick Use of the Moment Is A Genius of Prudence
“Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.” – Johann Kaspar Lavater
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Genius, Johann Kaspar Lavatar, Moment, Prudence, Quick, Thought For the Day, Use
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Two Brothers Fight
Two Brothers Fight
by Michael Doyle
Two brothers are engaged in a fight
Over their father's founding legacy
Each side as if as lost within vanity
As the day that divides the ends of night
Down through the centuries
Each side believes itself the better
Repeating cycles of false histories
Without recognizing whether
There might be a better way
Found through mercy and humanity
Crazy is the doing of every day
Expecting differing results (as if that's sanity)
One side tries to grope toward coexistence
While the other clings to hateful persistence
Claiming the fallen stakes of victimhood
As if they're merely and simply misunderstood
Caught up in the endless cycles of brutality
They claim all the land from the river to the sea
Proclaiming only their perceived indignity
Without allowing for the other side's humanity
Two brothers are engaged in a fight
Over their father's founding legacy
Each side as if as lost within vanity
As the day that divides the ends of night
Down through the centuries
Each side believing itself the better
Repeating cycles of false histories
Without recognizing whether
There might be a better way
Found through mercy and humanity
Crazy is the doing of every day
Expecting differing results (as if that's sanity)
You don't find peace through fighting
You don't find love through keeping hate
Truth doesn't come through gaslighting
We all get to work toward a better fate
Darkness has overtaken the Holy Lands
In known disobedience to God's commands
There is only mutually caused destruction
When brothers abandon the paths of construction
Two brothers are locked in a losing fight
Over their father's founding legacy
Neither side looks up with enough integrity
To see the day that can bring healing light
Down through the torrid centuries
Each side has believed itself the better
Repeating protocols and false histories
Without getting any sort of better
There might yet be found a better way
Found in the strength of mercy and humanity
No longer held in the chains of yesterday
In this difference, there can be found sanity
(c) November 14, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Abandon, Allow, Believe, Better, Better Fate, Better Way, Brutality, Caught Up, Centuries, Chains of Yesterday, Claim, Cling, Coexistence, Construction, Crazy, Darkness, Day, Desert To the Sea, Difference, Disobedience, Divide, Each Side, Endless Cycles, Ends of Night, Every Day, Fallen Stakes, False Histories, Father, Fight, Gaslighting, God's Commands, Hate, Holy Lands, Humanity, Indignity, Land, Legacy, Love, Mercy, Miunderstood, Mutually Caused Destruction, One Side, Other Side, Paths, Peace, Poetry and Poems, Proclaim, Recognize, Repeating Cycles, Result, Sanity, Strength, Truth, Two Brothers, Vanity, Victimhood, Work Toward
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First Principles: No Number of Wreaths, No Amount of Music and Memorializing Will Ever Do Them Justice, But It Is Good For Us That We Honor Them and Their Sacrifice
“No number of wreaths, no amount of music and memorializing will ever do them justice, but it is good for us that we honor them and their sacrifice.”- Ronald Reagan, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Dedication (1982)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Amount, First Principles, Good, Honor, Justice, Memorialize, Music, Number, Ronald Reagan, Sacrifice, Wreaths
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Thought For the Day: Without Peace, All Other Dreams Vanish and Are Reduced To Ashes
“Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.” – Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Ash, Dreams, Jawaharlal Nehru, Peace, Reduce, Thought For the Day, Vanish
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Fairness of Trials Had
Fairness of Trials Had
by Michael Doyle
In this free land of dignity and right
The Bill of Rights shines into the night
Amended to our Constitution, our government
Holds these rights as something self-evident
The fairness of trials in the Sixth Amendment
May not seem as important to our government
But when it comes to the impartiality of trial
There can be no equitable sense of denial
These processes are those such as required
Are our safeguards and true justice-inspired
The right to trial shields the people
From being mistreated as being unequal
The public trial allows the fairest contest
It allows for the confrontation of witnesses
All of this holds the line for impartiality
And brings us the strictest sense of legality
This founding principle kept the system equal
So that it acts to protect all of the people
From having hearings held in abject secrecy
It stands the test of time in our legacy
These boundaries are set firmly to protect
Us from the powerful least that they forget
It shields us against the chains of tyranny
And the risk of allowing abuse of authority
All these rights come together in our government
Protectively joined together in the 14th Amendment
In the protection of the accused from wrongful injury
The people serve as their neighbors' jury
The importance of this is seen in the love of power
That might otherwise give us pause to cower
But instead, our rights and freedoms are protected
With our freedoms secured and dignity respected
(c) November 13, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 14th Amendment, Abuse of Authority, Bill of Rights, Chains of Tyranny, Confrontation, Constitution, Cower, Dignity, Equitable Sense, Fairness, Fairness of Trials, Feedoms, Founding Principle, Free Land, Government, Impartiality, Inspire, Legality, Love of Power, Mistreated, Pause, Poetry and Poems, Processes, Protected, Public Trial, Respected, Right, Right to Trial, Rights and Freedoms, Secure, Self-Evident, Shield, Sixth Amendment, The People, Trials, Unequal, Witnesses
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First Principles: Of All the Enemies To Public Liberty War Is, Perhaps, the Most To Be Dreaded, Because It Comprises and Develops the Germ of Every Other
“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Comprise, Continual Warfare, Develop, Dread, Enemies, First Principles, Freedom, Germs, James Madison, No Nation, Public Liberty, War
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Thought For the Day: Everybody, Soon Or Late, Sits Down To A Banquet of Consequences
“Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (13 Nov 1850-1894)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Banquet, Consquences, Everybody, Late, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sit, Soon, Thought For the Day
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Relational Fruits Observed
Relational Fruits Observed
by Michael Doyle
We are confronted with truth before mercy
The Bible speaks this honestly to me
Leaning into those pressing spaces
As we welcome God's sacred embraces
His Holy Spirit whispers in our ears
Bringing us peace and easing our fears
This creates a healthy tension between flesh and godly ways
As we grow in our discernment throughout our days
Some passages come from the flair and the glare
Among the truths that God gently lays bare
Be it comforts and discomforts of human sexuality
To the avoidance of witchcraft and idolatry
When we crucify the flesh, we aim for our good
It's the fruits of the spirit that must be understood
Both God and the Devil are found in the details
There in the spaces we thrive in in the telling of tales
Sometimes, we need to avoid going with our intuition
As we evolve more spiritually in our constitutions
This is the reclamation that comes with the resurrection
That is soul-revealing of God's holy direction
Part of this comes down to discipline and self-control
Doing what's best for the health and good of the soul
It's not always easy and sometimes counters our desire
But when we persevere, we gain strength and do not tire
Self-control is the choosing of what it is for us not to do
It's the going against those things that we feel compelled to
Yet, we know that these are things God doesn't want us to do
Often this shows up in relational dynamics between me and you
In loving the Lord God, we grow in loving one another
It's the relationship of acting right with each other
Each moment has its opportunities for godly choices
It is up to each of us to listen to the Spirit's voice
As iron sharpens iron, we act to improve each other
Bringing out the best for and within one another
So to is the process of the pressures of contact
Filled with noises commotions of how we act
Sparks will fly in the midst of all this friction
That comes from the acts of this honing repetition
We need to elevate our words and our fortitude
To move things forward with the right attitude
This is not to say we should coddle others through life
Conflicts are often necessary as we grow through the strife
To become stronger and healthy in all of our best ways
That we might consistently live for our better days
God's light will expose us to what will set us free
In being fully blessed and to be truly set free
Purified from our sins as we walk in the light
Lifting each other up from the darkness of the night
True Christian ideals have been found difficult to endure
But it is only the untried truth that grants humanity's cure
It's the only path that provides the better way to end
Knowing the love of God, and sharing it with friends
(c) November 12, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Bare, Confront, Crucify, Discernment, Ear, God, Healthy Tension, Holy Spirit, Honest, Mercy, Observe, Passages, Peace, Poetry and Poems, Pressing Spaces, Relational Fruit, Sacred Embraces, Speak, The Bible, Truth
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Thought For the Day: The Fruit of the Spirit Is Fundamentally Relational. Rather Than Originating With Us, It Flows To Us From Our Union With Christ
“The fruit of the Spirit is fundamentally relational. Rather than originating with us, it flows to us from our union with Christ, and it flows beyond us to bring us into fellowship with others. The secret of this flow – and our unity with God and others – is humility.” – Jerry Bridges
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Fellowship, Flow, Flows, Fruit of the Spirit, Fundamental, Humility, Jerry Bridges, Origin, Others, Relational, Thought For the Day, Union With Christ, Us
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