Ravenously You Look Upon This World

Ravenously you look upon this world as a pirates chest,

Waiting to be plundered and pillaged.

Do you not see wrong in this?

The spoils are not for the powerful.

In fact–they are not spoils at all,

But gifts given for our momentary use!

These “things” we so desperately seek,

They are but tokens…nothing,

Objects of desire that cannot save us,

I am quite certain of this.

These lands in which we stake our flags,

The waters which we claim as ours,

The air with which we do as we please,

Polluting, damming, acid rain, smog,

Thieving, eminent domain,

None of this is ours to possess!

We do not hold dominion over this world,

By doing so we destroy these gifts.

We war in the name of possession;

Subjugating others for profit,

Excluding those that we deem unfit.

Who made us king, master, dictator?

Some may say God,

That He made us lord over his creation,

But I disagree.

Did God grant Adam and Eve property rights,

Ownership of His design for them to do with as they pleased,

Did He sanction the hoarding of food, water or any other means of sustenance,

Or did His plan instruct them to take just what they need?

Since He would provide all that was required, greed and gluttony should have been unthinkable,

Yet we managed to bastardize His plan.

We overindulge in sustenance and material things,

Collecting property as if it was ours to keep,

Threatening to slaughter those that trespass.

Taking all that exists in this world to share and claiming it as our own.

Cultures considered less civilized than ours still exist,

They don’t need a mortgage for the ground on which they sleep,

They don’t feel the need to claim possession of the air which they breath,

Nor feel the need to control the waters,

They just live,

Taking no more than they can carry,

Leaving no trace behind.

Is there not elegance in their simplicity?

We lost our way eons ago,

Our path overgrown with weeds.

Still there is hope,

Though unlikely in my lifetime,

That we may once again trample a path

Back to our divine design.

Living simply,

Trusting that there is enough for everyone,

Sharing with those in need;

Unrealistic perhaps,

But this is my dream.

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

24 thoughts on “Ravenously You Look Upon This World”

    • You know, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I suppose that if his use of the land predated the BLM his usage rights should have been “grandfathered”. I also do not believe that firearms should be involved in this protest as a great many stupid things can happen when they are. Peaceful protest is how this should have been handled. This man Bundy and his militia cohorts are the worst type of fringe thinkers in that they are not peaceful, but instead are very dangerous. They are choosing to impose their “beliefs” on others that may or may not agree with them. Personally I think the grazing of his cattle is no threat to the public and shouldn’t have ever escalated to this point. In my opinion the BLM mission is generally good, saving and protecting our land for public use so that we all can enjoy them. Mr. Bundy could have gone through appropriate channels to get permission to use the land for grazing, but chose not to. None of us have to agree with the bureaucracy that has been imposed on us, but any changes that we want made should be done peacefully not at the end of a gun barrel. Just my opinion.

      Reply

      • I agree — as soon as the Mr. Bundy (and his supporters) showed their firearms the whole story changed – they went from being “good guys” to “wing-nut fringe elements”. We do need the BLM – otherwise the abuses and craziness of the 1800s would run rampant. Of course, now it seems that Big Businesses and Energy abuse and run rampant, with or without the BLM!

      • I agree with you on this, had they peacefully protested and or used the legal system to make their point no one (me) would be calling them fringe. No, I don’t like to be buried under tons of bureaucracy, however we must work within the system, no matter how flawed it is, that we have at our disposal. Of course, big business seems to get whatever they want in our political system so there is no surprise there.

      • From what I understand, don’t they owe a ton of fees and/or taxes? If that’s the case, then it seems like they want “special dispensation” just like a big business. Family history or not … There are costs in life and everyone needs to pay them. But what do I know ….?!?

      • Yes from what I understand there are fees that need to be paid, how much I don’t know as I am not well versed in this type of thing, but I know that people get grandfathered in for things all the time. I don’t know that this issue is about land use only, there seems to be differences in belief systems that are fanning these flames, but like you said “What do I know?” I certainly don’t know anything first hand about this.

      • One way or another, people need to remember: this isn’t the Old West. I worry about this turning into another Waco-like incident if these wingnuts keep waving their guns around. :(

      • Well let me tell you, people here in the southwest sure think this is still the Old West, seeing people carrying guns on their hip is nothing. I’m not really sure who they are protecting themselves from, but they seem to think there is danger lurking around every corner. Even where I work, not a day goes by that there aren’t conversations about guns, how hard it is to buy ammunition and they fact that Obama is working hard to take all of their guns away. Most of the time I just sit quietly and laugh to myself. Coming from the east coast, New Jersey specifically where it is a real process to purchase and own a gun, I think the attitude out here is…well ridiculous for lack of a better word. I would also agree with you that if cooler heads don’t prevail in this standoff we could very well see another Waco-like incident and that would be an absolute shame.

      • Oh my gosh, the “Obama Wants Our Guns” mentality — that drives me nuts! New Jersey and Philly don’t seem to have that attitude, as far as I can tell, but the mid-state – “Pennsyltucky” – we have that attitude. It drives me nuts.

        One of the non-profits I worked for one time – they hired an agency to give them more information about our state, region-by-region, county-by-county. They gave each region a cute name that summarized its mentality. What did my region get? “Shotguns and pickups.” Yup.

        Forget Kermit the Frog and “It’s Not Easy Being Green”. If you live in Pennsyltucky, “It’s Not Easy Being Blue”! o.O

      • It is the same thing here, shotguns and pickups except it is the whole state, we are firmly stuck in the “Red” and I guess always have been. I’m sure that some of the stuff we do here has made us a laughing stock for the rest of the country. The “Obama Wants Our Guns” mentality drives me nuts too, if making military style assault weapons is taking our guns then I am all for it. These guns are not for sport, but instead are meant for killing other human beings period, this to me is unacceptable.

      • I totally agree with you … there’s no reason for a person who isn’t in the military to have an assault weapon for in their personal possession.

        It’s sad — the Minutemen in AZ seem to be operating close to where I was born. I’d kind of like to visit there some time – but not I have reservations about it. We hear about human trafficking from the south – but honestly I’m just as concerned about the vigilantes!

        Honestly, though, the only thing in AZ we really laugh about up here is Jan Brewer – and that’s a kind of nervous “what’s she going to do *this* time” sort of laugh! Though I must say it was reassuring to see that she vetoed the “I don’t have to serve gay people in my gun shop” bill. ;)

        But lest you think I’m picking on AZ, I must admit (with a red, embarrassed face) that Peeay is responsible for Santorum. [shudder]

      • Oh I know about Santorum (and I’m sorry). Brewer is an embarrassment to me as well and thankfully she is not going to run again, but of course who knows what we will get next. We don’t really hear much about the Minutemen anymore, they were a hot topic for a time, but they seem to have faded into the background or maybe I stopped paying attention to them. Well I guess we all are embarrassed by our states one time or another I suppose. :)

      • Gov. Tom Corbett is an embarrassment, but thankfully he’s only embarrassed us locally lately, not on a national scale. (But the day’s young, right?) It does seem that our options in the Redlands keep getting worse and worse. No wonder people in other nations think that Americans are wing-nuts and loonies!

        Glad the Minutemen have faded – hopefully it’s that they’re less active, not that people are bored.

      • Wow, no I hadn’t seen this, but this guy and his posse are the worst possible threat to this country. Don’t we have enough problems to deal with without having to deal with nitwits (dangerous nitwits) like these. Since when did the BLM become the bunch of “jackbooted” thugs that this Mack character is portraying them to be? This whole thing is bizarre.

      • I have no idea but it seems to be escalating horribly. But maybe when this information leaks out they’ll lose any sympathy they might have gotten. It’s disgusting.

        A serious, Waco-like, cult-like mentality.

        ‘Merica!

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