“In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper No. 1
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First Principles: In Politics, As In Religion, It is Equally Absurd To Aim At Making Proselytes By Fire and Sword. Heresies In Either Can Rarely Be Cured By Persecution
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Aiim, Alexander Hamilton, Cure, Equally Absurd, Federalist Paper No. 1, Fire and Sword, First Principles, Heresies, Persecution, Politics, Proselytes, Rare, Religion
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Thought For the Day: It Is Perhaps A More Fortunate Destiny To Have A Taste For Collecting Shells Than To Be Born A Millionaire
“It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.” -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (13 Nov 1850-1894)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Born, Collect, Destiny, Fortunate, Millionaire, Perhaps, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shells, Taste
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The Boundaries of Humanity
The Boundaries of Humanity
by Michael Doyle
A problem in law that too often escapes detection
Is the weakest in life to have adequate protection
Rather the unborn or those at the ends of their life
Each deserves their own good without facing strife
To pursue happiness enjoyed in our fullest liberty
Should be the truest aim of ethical anthropology
Invisible or not, we all hold the responsibility
To all others in steadily upholding our human community
Vulnerable in our natural limits, we strive
To have counted in living and do more than survive
Supporting this is the pitch perfect philosophy
And very much needed in this time in our history
What is good and right is grounded in understanding
Of what it means to be a human being and then demanding
That our meaning of self and our bonds of humanity
Rest fully in our connections of place, God and family
Choice then is not really the bioethics of everything
Being human requires more than the dominance it brings
But the understanding of our requirement to protect the weak
Beginning with the wrong values helps no one when we speak
The essence of body-soul dualism is in and at play
Seems palatable with principle and dignity for our lives today
Yet if ever we are to arrive at any equitable solution
We will need to stop and listen carefully to each contribution
There are too many errors in thought on morality
Publicly and privately, we must live with right nobility
Beyond the individual desires that often conspire
To separate ghosts and machines burnt on selfish pyres
We are more than bodies that shell our strong will
Legitimating abortion and infanticide for the sake of a thrill
Justifying murder stating the unborn and elderly lack capability
To be seen as "persons" without functional personality
From this lacking argument, human rights are denied implicitly
Taking away the dignity of life is nothing less than explicitly
Depriving others of their affirmation without defense
All arguments to the contrary are little but pretense
A mother and her child are not atomized strangers
With conflicts of interests in varying degrees of danger
The right of the mother to life is not the freedom to kill
Unless we are to say that we must ignore all but one will
This is inviable in a network of interdependent vulnerability
That has come together to form the bonds of our society
It is unreasonable to believe this sadly, grave mistake
That anyone is so independent as that equality must break
If we are to keep the worth of our sacred sense of dignity
To do without these thoughts is to bring harm to society
This throw away culture of today must be put to its right
Straightened to correct and live our lives in the light
(c) November 13, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Abortion, Adequate Protection, Affirmation, At Play, Atomized Strangers, Beginning, Believe, Bioethics, Body-Soul Dualism, Bonds of Society, Boundaries, Break, Choice, Conflicts of Interests, Conspire, Contribution, Correct, Danger, Defense, Desreve, Dignity, Dignity of Life, Dominance, End of Life, Equality, Equitable Solution, Errors In Thought, Essence, Ethical Anthropology, Explicit, Family, Freedom to Kill, Functional Personality, Ghosts, God, Good, Harm, History, Human Being, Human Community, Human Rights, Humanity, Ignore, Implicit, In the Light, Individual Desires, Infanticide, Invisible, Lack Capability, Lacking Argument, Law, Legitimate, Liberty, Live Our Lives, Machines, Meaning of Self, Mistake, Morality, More Than Survive, Mother and Child, Murder, Network of Interdependent Vulnerability, Persons, Philosophy, Photograph, Place, Poem, Poetry, Pretense, Principle, Problem, Pursue Happiness, Put To Right, Pyres, Requirement, Responsiability, Sacred Sense, Sake of A Thrill, Speak, Throw Away Culture, Today, Unborn, Understanding, Unreasonable, Uphold, Varying Degrees, Vulnerable, Weakest In Life, Will, Without Strife, Worth
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Thought For the Day: No Danger Flowing From Speech Can Be Deemed Clear and Present Unless the Incidence of the Evil Apprehended Is So Imminent That It May Befall Before There Is An Opportunity For Full Discussion
“No danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is an opportunity for full discussion. Only an emergency can justify repression.” – Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Apprehend, Befall, Clear, Devil, Emergency, Flow, Full Discussion, Imminent, Incidences, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Justify, No Danger, Only, Opportunity, Present, Repression, Speech, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: The Battle, Sir, Is Not To the Strong Alone; It Is To the Vigilant, the Active, the Brave
“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” —Patrick Henry (1775)
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Tagged Active, Alone, Battle, Brave, First Principles, Not To, Patrick Henry, Strong, Vigilant
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A Most Holy Compact
The Mayflower Compact serves as the rudimentary model for the governance of the United States of America. As a document, it also served as a model for both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution itself. This year is the 400th Anniversary of the establishment of the Plymouth Colony and this deserves to be remembered as the American Thanksgiving Day celebration is just around the corner.
A Most Holy Compact
by Michael Doyle
It isn't just a matter of toleration
There at the beginning of our nation
That the Mayflower Compact was one of liberty
This then is the beginning of our history
As the Pilgrims sought Christian purity
Their need to depart was one of surety
Seeking only to love and study God's divinity
Holland and then off to America was their journey
Jamestown and Plymouth were secured in belief
In commonwealths based on God's given relief
From being forced to follow a tainted theology
Of which God's part was to them a contested mystery
Under the pressure of uncertainty, a covenant was formed
To create a common society by which all would be conformed
Parsing out the lines of meaning in the Lord's name
They worked to provide Plymouth's good frame
There it was that America formed its first community
Bringing in brethren and strangers as common family
This declaration of religious and sacred liberty
Was founded in God's name and in His divine authority
Here began our pilgrim's quest in rarified equality
That would create the basis of America's striving for liberty
To be self-governing in this new form of political society
When even then there was a sense of accepted plurality
There were rough strangers on that Mayflower sailing ship
Some even who were not so constrained in matters of worship
Yet, each passenger, regardless of class, stood together
In the serious and grave belief in the rights of one another
It was something greater than government granted toleration
That created the basis for the coming American nation
These great liberties were given by God's divine light
To follow one's own conscience is everyone's given right
There in the pressures of uncharted circumstance
Rose a social compact before its time driven by happenstance
In it, we might find the need to walk in its inspiration
That would grow through cooperation, not coercion, into our nation
(c) November 12, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Accepted, America, American Nation, Basis, Beginning, Belief, Christian, Circumstance, Class, Common Society, Commonwealth, Community, Compact, Conformed, Cooperation, Covenant, Declaration, Depart, Divine Authority, Divinity, Equality, Family, Follow, Formed, Frame, Given Right, God, God's Divine Light, God's Name, Governance, Government Given, Grow, Happenstance, History, Holy, Inspiration, Jamestown, Journey, Liberties, Liberty, Lord's Name, Love, Matters of Worship, Mayflower Compact, Model, Mystery, Nation, Not Coercion, One Another, One's Own Conscience, Our Nation, Parsing, Passenger, Photograph, Pilgrim, Plurality, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, Poem, Poetry, Political Society, Pressure, Purity, Quest, Relief, Rights, Rough Strangers, Sacred, Sailing Ship, Seek, Social Compact Theory, Stand Together, Study, Thanksgiving, Theology, Toleration, United States of America, Walk
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First Principles: It Is of Great Importance To Set A Resolution, Not To Be Shaken, Never To Tell An Untruth
“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him.” – Thomas Jefferson (1785)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Attending, Believe, Contempible, Easier, First Priciples, Habitual, Importance, Lies, Mean, Pitiful, Resolution, Shaken, Tell, Thomas Jefferson, Truths, Untruth, Vice, World
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Thought For the Day: Patience Is Also A Form of Action
“Patience is also a form of action.” -Auguste Rodin, sculptor (12 Nov 1840-1917
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Action, Also, Auguste Rodin, Form, Patience, Thought For the Day
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Late Night Thoughts of You
Late Night Thoughts of You
by Michael Doyle
From my first thought in the morning
To my last thought late at night
It has grown suddenly and without warning
That being without you just isn't right
My dreams get a little more dreary
When you are not laying beside me
And my hopes seem a little bit less
My heart shakes lost in its own mess
But, lady, when you're near me
I feel at home with our possibility
That of the everything that you are to me
I suppose that is shines easy enough to see
Here I am again with late night thoughts of you
This isn't something I would ever want to undo
I see that it's the same for you as it is for me
Your home in my heart is large enough for the world to see
(c) November 11, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Late Night, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Thoughts, You
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Thought For the Day: Censorship Is the Commonest Social Blasphemy Because It Is Mostly Concealed, Built Into Us By Indolence, Self-Interest and Cowardice
“Censorship is the commonest social blasphemy because it is mostly concealed, built into us by indolence, self-interest and cowardice.” – John Osborne (1929-1994)
