“No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community.” – Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
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Thought For the Day: No Man Who Is Corrupt, No Man Who Condones Corruption In Others, Can Possibly Do His Duty By the Community
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Community, Condones, Corrupt, Corruption, Duty, No Man, Others, Possibly, The Strenuous Life, Theodore Roosevelt, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: To Prevent Crimes Is the Noblest End and Aim of Criminal Jurisprudence
“To prevent crimes, is the noblest end and aim of criminal jurisprudence. To punish them, is one of the means necessary for the accomplishment of this noble end and aim.“ – James Wilson (1790)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Accomplishment, Aim, Crimes, Criminal Jurisprudence, End, First Principles, James Wilson, Necessary, Noble, One Means, Prevent, Punish
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Be Your Own Hero
Be Your Own Hero
by Michael Doyle
Incurable as a dreaming hero
Stubborn as a seeming zero
We play our parts in masquerade
Each day lived within its charade
Hiding ourselves behind the music we play
Caught up in front of screens all day
Because we cannot be who we want to be
Despite the self we let others see
There's a dinginess that clings to death
A dirtiness noticeable on our breaths
As we speak the things unspeakable
Hoping to convince ourselves we are unbreakable
There in that swallowed pride that we drink
As we take our pause just to be able to think
Thoughts filed away in the recesses of our minds
Hidden in the dark, afraid of what we might find
Taking the hit that won't ever be forgot
In hope that someone might have half a shot
At finding the clues that lead to the answers
To cure the malignant matter that eats at us like cancer
If you will pardon the sheerest cupidity
Of the double edged sword of our duplicity
As it cuts through our lives, be they real or not
The worse of it's banal lessons will not be forgot
True villainy cannot be hidden behind any mask
To believe so is the madness that calls and tasks
Us to stand, even if alone, against the violence
No longer condoning this through timid silence
These are the circumstances from which heroism is born
When the fabric of society is now tattered and torn
Somewhere pushing through all of life's abuses
Is the justification of warnings too profuse
To ignore or put aside any longer
We must instead become more able and stronger
Standing for truth and light against the vast night
In hope of answering the why needed to make it all right
(c) September 2, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Able, Abuses, Afraid, Against, Aloone, Answering, Answers, Believe, Born, Breath, Calls, Cancer, Charade, Circumstance, Condone, Convince, Cupidity, Cure, Cuts, Dark, Death, Despite, Dingy, Dirty, Double Edged Sword, Drink, Duplicity, Even, Fabric of Society, Filed Away, Find, Finding Clues, Forgot, Front, Half A Shot, Hero, Heroism, Hidden, Hiding, Hope, Ignore, Incurable, Justification, Lessons, Life, Madness, Make It Right, Malignant, Mask, Masquerade, Music, Night, Others, Pardon, Pause, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Profuse, Pushing Through, Put Aside, Real, Recess, Screens, See, Self, Silence, Speak, Stand, Stronger, Stubborn, Swallowed Pride, Take the Hit, Tasks, Tattered, Think, Torn, True, Truth and Light, Unbreakable, Unspeakable, Vast, Villainy, Violence, Warning, Who We Want to Be, Why, Worse, Your Own
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First Principles: Here Comes the Orator! With His Flood of Words and His Drop of Reason
“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin (1735)
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Tagged Benjamin Franklin, Drop, First Principles, Flood, Here, Orator, Reason, Words
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Thought For the Day: There Are Conditions of Blindness So Voluntary That They Become Complicity
“There are conditions of blindness so voluntary that they become complicity.” – Paul Bourget, novelist (2 Sep 1852-1935)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Blindness, Complicity, Conditions, Paul Bourget, There, Thought For the Day, Voluntary
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Thought For the Day: What We Need In the United States…Is Not Violence and Lawlessness But Is Love and Wisdom and Compassion Toward One Another
“What We Need In the United States Is Not Division. What We Need In the United States Is Not Hatred. What We Need In the United States Is Not Violence and Lawlessness But Is Love, and Wisdom, and Compassion Toward One Another, and A Feeling of Justice Toward Those Who Still Suffer Within Our Country….” – Robert F. Kennedy
The Solace of Life’s Magnitude
The Solace of Life's Magnitude
by Michael Doyle
I've never quite decided the tragedy
In the inches of life's comedy
It's all just another way to die
Quite laughable in how it brings another cry
There in the bullet that's fired
Is the bang up finish that has conspired
Found in the sentimental lock of hair
Is another reason found why we should never care
The pain life gives makes it hard to take it
But all the same it's near impossible to fake it
When all of life's conspiracies suddenly collide
Can you tell me truly if it wounds your pride?
So many people are living just a bit loud
Yet, no one gets out alive; it's not allowed
Chasing after our villains over roof top
We are too engaged to ever find our full stop
As we come crashing through the skylight glass
We find ourselves hanging in balance before we pass
There are the wounds that have grown slow to heal
Hidden in the secrets we've come to dread to reveal
Surrounded as we are in the sheer shroud of mystery
We marvel at the questions lived out as our history
It's these as we busily search the tainted faces
That even the most hollow of us near daily embraces
A picked lock as it and if it truly ever were
Surrenders the too many coincidences that daily occur
We take our last inning scratch as we quietly bleed out
And in our last desperate breath, all we hold is doubt
(c) September 1, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Alive, Allow, Another Way To Die, Balance, Bleed Out, Breath, Bullet, Chase, Coincidences, Collide, Comedy, Conspiracy, Conspire, Crash, Cry, Daily, Desperate, Doubt, Embrace, Faces, Finish, Fire, Full Stop, Hard, History, Hold, Impossible To Fake, Inches, Last Inning, Laugh, Life, Living, Lock of Hair, Loud, Magnitude, Marvel, Mystery, Pain, Pass, Photograph, Picked Lock, Poem, Poetry, Pride, Questions, Reason, Scratch, Search, Secrets, Sentimental, Shroud, Slow To Heal, Solace, Surrender, Take It, Tragedy, Wound, Wounds
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First Principles: A General Dissolution of Principles and Manners Will More Surely Overthrow the Liberties of America Than the Whole Force of the Common Enemy
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.” – Samuel Adams (1779)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged America, Common Enemy, Dissolution, First Principles, General, Liberties, manners, Overthrow, Principles, Samuel Adams, Whole Force
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Capture the Flag
Capture the Flag
by Michael Doyle
There you are with your mind scattered
Having fought hard for what is said mattered
None of this means all that much to you
Just another bit of life to go through
Like rats caught in Skinner's maze
You watch the fight in a kind of daze
It matters little how the shadow plays
When all you want is that one gaze
That sinks into you like it must
Revealing itself as something you can trust
Everyone seems to fight for their pack of lies
It's cold and lonely when seen and you realize
Tribes playing at a macabre capture the flag
Tired, tainted and tattered like an old rag
We're always encouraged to keep our eyes on the prize
But, what do you do when we find out it's all been lies?
(c) August 31, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Bit of Life, Capture the Flag, Cold and Lonely, Daze, Do, Encourage, Eyes On the Prize, Fight, Find Out, Flag, Fought Hard, Gaze, Go Through, Matter, Maze, Means, Mind, Much, Must, Old Rag, Pack of Lies, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Rats, Realize, Reveal, Scatter, Seen, Shadow Plays, Sink, Skinner, Taint, Tatter, Tire, Tribe, Trust, Watch
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On Finding You Finding You
On Finding You Finding You
by Michael Doyle
Without a snort and very little pout
You said it all when you walked out
I'll say that I admire your integrity
As you work your own path and identity
Who is to say what forges a personality
Only time and God work these out - eventually
How does one get to being authentically you
When everywhere you turn is a force of view
Telling us all to not trust our own perceptions
Knee deep in the weeds of society's deceptions
How many little girls have put the make-up on
And suddenly the Tom Boy is all but gone
A lakeside, star gazing kind of conversation
Or, a Sunday's long drive without fixed destination
These are things that bridge into our intimacy
As we reveal our dreams, fears and outright fantasy
There's a feeling to the wind running through the trees
In an almost mystic whisper carried on the breeze
In the end, I know you'll find your own you
And I'll Love you as much as today, tomorrow and after you do
(c) August 31, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Admire, Authentic, Breeze, Bridge, Carry, Conversation, Deceptions, Dreams, Drive, Eventually, Everywhere, Fantasy, Fears, Feeling, Finding You, Fixed Destination, Forge, Gone, Identity, In the End, Integrity, Intimacy, Knee Deep, Lakeside, Little Girls, Make-Up, Mystic, Outright, Perceptions, Personality, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Pout, Reveal, Run, Said It All, Snort, Society, Star Gaze, Sunday, Time and God, Today, Tom Boy, Tomorrow, Trust, Walked Out, Weeds, Whisper, Wind, Work Your Own, You
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