Man is Not Alone by Abraham J. Heschel

Man is Not Alone explores what may be the largest question of a believer's life, What is God like? Heschel says that there is a God and presents an idea of what God may be like. More importantly Heschel discusses what kind of attitude people must develop in order to have a relationship with God. Even an atheist will find this book beneficial because Heschel lays out a standard for how people should treat each other. He also makes it clear how we must view and treat ourselves. God is a force that is always here for humanity in this book. Heschel proposes that the task for us is to reach the highest level of humanity.

Facing Reality

The medical industry is going to change in major ways. Local governments will be making deep cuts in funding schools, programs, and agencies. New York State alone faces an $18 billion deficit. This means that we will all have to face reality.


With limited resources every person cannot have quality treatment. We will be forced to spend what resources we have on the most deserving among us. The brightest children will receive an education. The dim thinkers will receive some training or apprenticeships. People with terminal, irreversible illnesses will not receive the most care that hospitals can give. Large churches may have to combine. Small churches will disappear altogether.

Programs that we all take for granted will now vaporize. We will all be wise to create survival kits equipped with: batteries, candles, matches, small radios, canned goods, first aid kits, tents, etc. Emergency services will not show up. Learn all you can about home remedies because neighborhood clinics will be dead to us.

Reality is standing above us like a wave of a tsunami. We are on our own now. We have to regain that communal spirit if we are to survive this national down turn.

Uncle Tom was Misread!

Uncle Tom’s Cabin might make you a little nostalgic for the old United States. A place where the masters of commerce and the workers were right there together, each keeping an eye on the other, over the shoulders of middle management. A time when the ruling class was within grasping space of the oppressed. Stowe might make you wonder what happened to a people that could create communities in the slave quarters. Places where horror reigned absolute. How these devastated people were able to birth such a person as Uncle Tom. A character who refuses to harm another black person no matter how much the evil slaver tries to force him. This is a work of fiction, but these types did exist. To be called an Uncle Tom is negative in the black communities, but if we had Uncle Toms in the institutions of the U. S. today, black people would not suffer so. Reading Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin may make you long for another time. Of course books are supposed to make you feel.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes is one of the great poets of the United States of America. Hughes is one of the few African-American poets included in anthologies used by major colleges and universities. He is famous for the bluesy rhyme scheme in many of his poems. Though the surface of these texts are innocent, some of the subtexts can be prophetic. Hughes’ “Dreams” is a prophetic warning to the power structure of the U. S. of what would happen if all were not allowed to share in the “American Dream.”


Hughes identifies the U. S. by referencing a bird. “For if dreams die / Life is a broken-winged bird.” The symbol of the United States is the eagle. He warns that if those in power continue to oppress its citizenry, it would remain broken and be unable to soar to the grand heights of the vision in the constitution.

In the second stanza Hughes tell the power structure of the punishment that would come if they retard the dreams of the masses like an old testament Prophet. “For when dream go / Life is a barren field. Hughes is telling rulers that an U. S. with restrictions on the “American Dream” will not produce anything. He alludes to the Bible’s Moses warnings to the Pharaohs.

Langston Hughes speaks with a smooth sound on the surface along with a heavy prophetic message just beneath. Hughes advises the great “America” to allow all of its people to share in the dream of life or else be stunted as far as protection goes. Or else become barren causing all to suffer.

The Hole in Healthcare

Let us shine a light on the new health care bill. It is difficult to praise or criticize the new health care bill because most of it does not go into affect until the year 2014. Some parts of the bill will not apply until 2018. A few pieces of the legislation begin in 2010. One is that children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied insurance by insurance companies. This is great. The companies can only deny insurance for lack of ability to pay. Oh! Oh! The insurance companies can charge customers more money. Insurance companies will have to raise premiums on everyone as not to be perceived as unfair. This means that everyone who could afford insurance before will no longer be able to afford it. So if you have a lot of money you will get. The best or worse part about this health care bill is that we do not know who to blame for it. Is it the president’s bill? Yes and no. Does it belong to Congress? Yes and no. One thing we can be sure of is that a lot of politicians will be unemployed November of 2010.


Personal Statement


We all have our demons to slay. Mine is not alcohol, drugs, or food. No, my demon is hate. Hate lurks like a rabid beast, pacing around my house, waiting for me to open a window or door. I win the battle each day by doing one of the loneliest acts, leading with love.

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District 9

Alien science fiction movies are good because the aliens can act as proxies for some group without offending too many people. District 9 is a great film. The aliens in District 9 can stand in for any citizen in the world that does not have direct connections to those in power.


District 9 is so well shot and acted that you may forget that you are watching a fictional piece of art. Especially if you paid any attention to the victims of Hurricane Katrina or the Haitian Earthquake. The movie gives us the mode of operations of the power structure any time there are refugees from some disaster. First the military confronts those in need. The sufferers are then isolated into camps. After all of that ordinary people are recruited to manage the refugee camps. The more ordinary the person, the more responsibilities they are given.

District 9 also brings to light, with subtlety, a crucial point. That is that corporations lead politicians, not the people who vote for them. No matter how unpopular the alien camps become to the human beings they remain in tact. The poor aliens are stuck in this strange place where life is the opposite of what the people living believe it is.

District 9 will entertain you with action and may teach you something with an intelligent screen play well presented. Watch this film. You never know when you will become a victim of disaster and find yourself in a relief camp.

Our Seeds

The Poet T. S.

Referred to us as
Flowers in the concrete.
Not Eliot, Pac.
And he was right too
When bricks fell from abandoned buildings,
We used them to draw Skelly and hop-scotch
Courts in the street.
When the stores dumped old crates in the lot,
We cut the bottoms, nailed them to trees,
And played basketball all night long.
We were true to our heritage,
Making something out of nothing.
We grew up and had children.
And what did we give them?
Electronic, virtual fun
On 42 inch television sets.
Shame on us for not giving our seeds
The stuff to become larger flowers
Than us.

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