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Poems and Writings, Random Thoughts, Religious, Thought of the day

Be a dreamer, free thinker and free spirit

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011living in large  communities and in this so-called modern civilization we are subjected to constant ridicule and supposed social enormities we must follow and conform to in order to be happy or successful. They want us to believe we must conform and obey the social rules of normalcy in order to be happy and a part of the society we live in. Seems to be a dreamer, free-thinker and an individual within this modern world is unwanted and/or looked down upon.

Comply, conform and be like the rest of the people or be looked upon as a fool and or a madman. Be like the rest of us or be an outcast and be the target of ridicule. I say hogwash, hooey and the heck with what is supposed to be the norm and the fences they erected to contain our thoughts and potential as a human being. I am going to be me even if that means being an outcast or that I wont belong to what they call the norm. It was freethinkers and dreamers that have changed the course of this human race a many of times. Some brought peace and others have brought us to a better understanding of the world around us. Several great freethinkers and dreamers even helped create this great nation I live in, the United States.

So one can either follow and be a part of the normal and constrained majority of the modern world or one can be a dreamer, freethinker and free spirit who helps change the world if not just be the alarm clock for those who lay in a sleepless state or normalcy. Be yourself, be true to yourself and do not allow the modern world to hold back the  creative and unique spirit within you.

So what, I am not part of the norm, nor am I a popular person or successful by the measure that the modern world and society has created. I am myself and I am happy being whom I truly am within.

Peace,Freedom of thought and love to all.

Raymond Barbier

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Why is being right more important than doing the right thing?

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IMG_1077Sometime we tend to be our own worst enemy, we get wrapped up in what we think we want and neglect what we truly need. This seems to be the dilemma of humanity.  We are social creatures for the most art but it seems we have become more focused on our individuality than the group, clan or community. We forgot how to care and be part of a community and to work together. It’s all about taking care of ourselves and our own instead of we are all a part of an extended family. It’s all good to be an individual and to express such, but not at the expense of  loosing our connection from the great family of humanity.

We allow politics, religion, race, culture and many other things get in the way of being the great creation God made us to be. We as a species are capable of doing such good and amazing things when we work together and put our differences aside. We are all basically the same, we all really want peace, love and happiness for ourselves, our family and especially for our children. Why cant that be enough of a motive for us to be civilized and mature enough to be at peace with one another and learn to work together to make this world a better place for everyone? Why is greed more important than your neighbor or the poor guy begging for his next meal? Why is being right more important than doing the right thing?

It is far better to be poor and have your next meal than to be rich and want for nothing, for without anything to aspire for there is little to enjoy. It is far more important to do the right thing than to worry about who is right or wrong. For doing the right thing is being in the right and worrying about who is right or not is such a waste of time and energy.

Raymond Barbier

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Loving,peaceful and compassionate lights within our world.

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eyeWe are supposed to be good examples and live to serve God by serving our fellow humans. We are servants, messengers, teachers and caregivers of our fellow human beings. Some Christians focus way too much on the condemnation of sinners and forget that we are here to serve god and be a light for those who are lost. We are to lead them to Jesus and his grace, we are also are to spread the word but not go out and be persecutors or those who condemn others. Just like vengeance, judging is God’s not mankind’s to do. We must of course be mindful of what goes on around us and within our own hearts but not as judges but as caregivers and teachers. We should be caring, peaceful, mindful, watchful, loving and compassionate lights within our world.

God does not only want us to change our mind but he also wants us to have a change of heart as well. What comes out of your mouth is either clean or unclean and is what can show others your true heart. Be a good person, be what God desires you to be and always seek to do the right thing.

Ray Barbier

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Put our minds and hearts together

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English: Poverty Русский: Нищенство

Between Mass media and the world-wide web it seems we are becoming a global minded society. Nothing wrong with being global minded as long as we never forget we live in our own small community as well. If we keep our minds distracted with the news of overseas conflicts and international problems we tend to forget the problems we face in our home towns. We should start at home when it comes to helping the needy, impoverished and those who can not fend for themselves. Though I fully support helping the less fortunate on a global scale as well I believe our hometowns should be our first priority. There are hungry, homeless, handicapped and many who can not do for themselves in every town and city in our great nation. Food stamps, welfare are good as temporary solutions in helping those who are able to work and is the right idea for those who are truly physically or mentally incapable of working.

We need to focus on offering those able to work training to do jobs and also offer them state and/or federal jobs doing community service. At least they will be on the right track back to being independent and self efficient individual. Most of those who are on some kind of governmental assistance usually prefers to work for their living but find it hard to get a job which pays enough to support themselves or their family. So if we offered them training and/or a job with the government doing something constructive for their money they would gladly accept one if not both options.

In the Appalachian region a lot of coal miners are finding themselves unemployed due to the greener America movement and the lack of permits being issued for mining. The idea of greener technologies and alternative energies is a great idea, but if you get a greener America at the cost of the jobs of Americans then how will that be a better America? We need to bring in more industries and jobs into the region and retrain coal miners to do the new jobs before we start forcing coal mining to shut down.  It doesn’t only affect the coal miners and their families it affects the whole community and the communities surrounding it. Food stores, shopping malls, restaurants and many small business will get hit hard by the loss of coal mining jobs. They rely on the coal miners for their income and business.

This is just some of the issues happening here in our own back yard and for some their front yard as well. It is time for communities to start coming together as a community and start dealing with the problems here at home. Together we can overcome any challenge as long as we put our minds and hearts together . Turn off that television, radio, mp3 player and any  other time-consuming distraction device  and tune in to what is going on in your own town for a day. Take a little time to help out your neighbors and your fellow citizens and see how just a little help can go a long way.

Ray Barbier

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No matter who wins

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Washington State Capitol - Olympia_1549a

It’s that time again, presidential election season. The time that all the major networks both on air and cable seem to be obsessed with the upcoming elections. So much spin, lies and words taken out of context it is hard to know what lie to believe next. I would love to see just one time a real campaign based on the issues and not on the misleading advertisements against the other candidate. Too little emphasis on fixing the problems and being truthful in modern politics and way too much mud-slinging and word bending. The last 20 years of politics has me sick to my stomach, not saying we didn’t have a few good presidents or even a congress that at one time would work for the good of the citizens, just that there is less reality in Washington politics than in a science fiction novel. They really need to get off of the mud-slinging and twisting of words and get down to the bare facts about the true issues at hand. No matter who wins this upcoming election, my hope is that the congress will get a grip and start working together on the problems our country faces and stops playing around with their party based agendas. Well God help us in 2013 and beyond, for I feel we will need all the help and blessings we can get if the congress continues to be like it has for the last 4+ years.

Ray Barbier

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People relied on themselves and each other to survive

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For the most of us the issue today is survival, how to survive on the income we have in an economy that is hostile to the working mans wallet. Food prices keep rising, the job market is pretty stagnant and business are cutting hours if not jobs. We can not rely on our government to save us or to fix the problems. Big business can only fix the employment issues and we are the only ones that will save our selves. We can learn how to make money stretch, grow our own food and trim the fat from our financial lives from our grandparents and great-grandparents. Some of them lived through the great depression and a world war, times were very tough back then and people relied on themselves and each other to survive.

Our economy is based on consumerism, yet the companies cut pay, jobs and send work over seas. How can Americans be consumers without money or a job? The corporations are cutting their nose off spite their face, they want to save money to make higher profits but they take away the consumers jobs and money that supply the profits. So I say lets start growing gardens, raising livestock and making due with less of the products from the companies that ship work across the oceans and who are cutting wages, benefits and jobs to Americans. I understand it is a global economy now days more so than just a national one, but if you neglect those whom helped you to get rich they will eventually wise up and stop supporting you and / or purchasing your products and services.

Maybe we need to start going back to a bartering system between us working folk and keep our unessential purchases to a minimum. Maybe then the big corporations will learn that the working class and the impoverished are not to be messed with or taken for granted.

Self-reliance, community and co-operation are the things that built the great cities and nations of our world.

Ray Barbier

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.
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Just another Sunday morning Rant.

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002Human history has proven humanity is capable of some horrific actions, from ancient conquerors , the trail of tears, world wars 1 and 2 we have seen some of the worst possible sides of humanity. There were of course some times that we rose up and done some miraculous things as well. When we are able to put behind us our differences and learn to forgive as well as forget we seem to be able to come together as a species and perform some very wonderful and spectacular feats.  The question remains of how this generation is remembered by the future generations to come. Is this going to be a generation of conflict, politics and the depletion of our natural resources or the generation that saw what was coming and took action as well as faced the dilemmas of our times. Between the media and the big corporations the average person is bombarded constantly with images and ideas of what we are supposed to look like, act like and what will make us happy. The sad part is a lot of us actually buy into all the sales pitches thrown at us. They pitch at us how a new smart phone makes our life easier or makes us look cooler or how we need to have tax cut for the wealthy. Too much information being sent at us 24/7 and it becomes almost like brain washing by seeing it so much.

Look at our food, it is so full of preservatives and unhealthy fillers or fats so that they can sell it cheap to us but anything that is good for you cost a lot more. Our meat is less nutritious than 2 generations ago and so was our fruits and vegetables. Our meat is becoming so low quality they was irradiate it to make sure it doesn’t have any bacteria or virus’s in it. It has all come down to profit, even to our governments. They spend our money and borrow from other countries and then try to cut off Social security which is by the way a paid for entitlement by the people. Our politicians are more worried about their political parties, agendas and careers than the economy or the state of our country. They are great at spinning tales, taking the words of another politician of context but they are lousy at reading and or passing bills to benefit the common worker.

To be honest, I believe some of the politicians in office really need to grow up and do the job we the tax payers pay them to do and stop playing party politics on our dime. We the consumers need to pay less attention to the illusion we need the newest thing to be happy and just be happy with what we have. We also should stop buying the unhealthy convenient foods and either buy fresh vegetables and fruits or when possible grow our own. We need to be more independent for the economy wont be getting better any time soon and the cost of food is unlikely to decrease. The more independent and self-sufficient we are the easier it will be to survive the possible hard times ahead. Even if the economy gets better it is still a good practice to be self-sufficient.

To be the generation of solutions and of change we must start changing our own lives and lead by example. We need to educate ourselves and help educate others on self efficiency and we need to get back to being more community minded. We can as a species either create a better world for our future generations or we can continue allowing the world to spiral downward as it has for years. I myself rather fix as much of the problems today in our world so that those who come after me will have a better world to live in than to leave them a mess that may not be fixable in the future.  It is our children’s and grandchildren’s world we are messing up today. Well enough ranting about this generation and the woes of the world of today and possibly of tomorrow for now.

We can be led by those in power or we can show those in power the way to lead.
Ray Barbier

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The World, The web and a needed change

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MP900289198The world is connected by a spider’s web of communication, information and all the junk that comes with such a large social connection. There are no more borders between the people or barriers between the cultures of our world. Yet governments still fight over imaginary lines on a map and the resources that they consider critical. Only if the governments could learn from the people and start looking beyond the illusions of separation and tolerate the differences between us all they might be able to pull together to find peaceful solutions to the problems this world faces as a whole. I am not promoting one world government, I think that would be a bad idea due to the ability of one person controlling everything. But I do support the idea of one world co-operation for the betterment of our world for everyone. The promotion of peace, compassion and the acceptance of our differences as an asset instead of a hindrance. So many of the problems we face in the modern world has been with us for such a long time, so many grudges between nations, Peoples and belief systems that have been amplifying through so many generations. It is so hard to try to fight against such anger and fear when it so embedded in the core of a groups beliefs. Trying to convince those who been raised to hate to see that there is hope and that people change individually as well as in multitudes.

MP900444203We have so many tools at our disposal as citizens of the information age to share our cultural differences as well as to become a more peaceful world. The internet with all its tools at our fingertips that can help spread a peaceful mentality as well as gathering together as a world to deal with the issues we are facing in modern times. We as a species have such great potential and yet we cling on to negative ideas and beliefs and hold ourselves back from our destiny. We can become the great caretakers of our world and explorers of our vast universe. World hunger, water shortages, disease and the disregard for life can be things of the past if only we can grow enough to except each other as we are and co-operate on a global level for the good of our world. Seems sad we still hold on to prejudices and hatreds that have plagued us since the dawn of civilization. We need to grow up as a species and take responsibility for the crimes we have committed towards our planet and all life that lives upon it. Take responsibility and begin healing the wounds we inflicted on our world as well as the hurt we caused to our fellow humans and animals alike. We need to get past our lust of money, power and the fear of the unknown.

MP900437376The future of our world and our species is in our hands and we should take life and all that is in it seriously. Not only this generation of humans are in danger by our current path, so are the many generations being born today and those that will follow.  We can let them inherit the mess of ours along with the aftermath of the problems from the generations before ours or we can step up to the plate and try to fix the problems we face today. Some of the choices we will have to make will be hard and will require sacrifices that we may not like but it is something we will have to do in order to change our future into  something our grandchildren can live in as well as enjoy.

We are the architects of the future and the students of the past.
Raymond Barbier

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Nothing is for free, the programs are paid by working citizens

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65242  Food stamps, public housing, welfare and other benefits provided by states and federal government are a necessity in times of high unemployment. The problem is the cost of these programs are bankrupting states and adding to the national debt. I don’t see why the states and the federal government couldn’t just require any able-bodied person who is receiving on or more of these benefits who are unemployed to work for the state or federal government in exchange for the benefits. At least it may offset the cost if not balance it out with the labor received. Nothing is for free, the programs are paid by working citizens and I see no reason a healthy person couldn’t work in exchange for the benefits. If it be just cleaning up trash off the side of the road, landscaping, mowing grass, custodial work in schools or any other job that could benefit the citizens and/or governments. Of course I support the idea of drug testing to receive benefits, If a person who is working a job has to take one to get and keep his job then why shouldn’t it be the same for a benefit recipient.

Plus if you require the healthy recipients to work then they can feel useful and it will keep them inspired to find employment. Also there should be more investigations and inspections on recipients to help prevent fraudulent benefit claims and beneficiaries. I do not wish to see the shutdown of the programs that are put in place to help those in need, but if we don’t find some way to alleviate both the cost and the waste created by fraudulent claims they will eventually either be stripped down to nothing or canceled. I am no expert and I don’t have all the answers, but I am intelligent enough to know the way things are going that all our benefits and entitlements will be gone in a generation or two if we don’t figure out how to keep them.

 

Just a few thoughts

Raymond Barbier

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Work together to better our communities and our world

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062 Every one of us has a story, each one of us influences the world around us. How we influence and how much we contribute is up to us. But there is no such thing as an unimportant person, we all are important, special and unique to God. We all are a part of the great machine called life. We as individuals can change our little worlds and as a group can influence change on a global scale. This is one of the unique qualities of human beings, we can change our environments to suit our needs as well as change the course of our worlds destiny / fate.  Protests, revolutions, grass root projects and just plain speaking up can cause political, social and even cultural changes. I prefer the non violent methods of enacting change, usually the violent path only brings suffering and brings either temporary or negative results.  There are of course some circumstances that violent action is the only path but it should be the last resort.

I blog quite often about how governments tend to be out of touch with the needs of the citizens and are more focused on the rich or the powerful. How the governments fail at actually coming up with solutions to problems due to party politics and the interest groups lobbying them. We can not rely on our governments to carry the weight and should as a nation and or global community start dealing with some of the problems ourselves. Poverty, hunger, homelessness and the environment are things we as citizens can make a difference in. If we organize and work together to better our communities and our world we can achieve almost anything. Some can give money, some can just volunteer time or their expertise as well as doing grass-roots education. So much we can do on our own and probably do a far better job of it than the government could do. It is the right way to do it and almost every religion supports the idea of taking care of our fellow human beings. We can put aside our religious and cultural differences to make this world a better place if we chose to do so.

 

Just some thoughts, Right or Wrong there here for all to see.

 

 

“Love, Compassion and peace are the keys to a better world.”

Raymond Barbier

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