The First Amendment  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It's early Monday after a stormy sunrise.  Thunder, lightening, driving rain; make for a great way for me to sleep.  I wake to gray skies and a soggy growing yard filling the view out the windows.  There it is on the TV screen, a head.  It is obviously talking.  Eyes flashing, hands come up waving, everyone is well dressed, and they are purporting what they are saying as massively important.  I don't have my glasses on to see the by lines at the bottom of the screen, so I have to turn up the volume.  There is a play by play of a murder trial of a little girl. Time ticks by 15 minutes - at the end of it I wonder why this is important to my day.  Where is my remote. A fresh cup of coffee.  I have a thought in my head.  

The very fact that I have a thought in my head causes some people to walk away, sigh and tsk tsk.  Hey wait - How many people reading were just tuned in to that earth shattering play by play of a horrific trail about the death of a little girl.  

Back with my coffee.  Checking in on my various social media sights. Here the flood comes a gain.  When my daughter was little she would say "words, words, words"  There they are.  Now admittedly I love them.  Lots of them.  A good story, bullet-ed  in information, personal rants, newspaper stories, poetry, words are my vice. The more the merrier, I suppose it could nearly be an addiction.  Whether or not its a healthy one remains to be seen.  

In my surfing I begin to feel the pain.  A pain whose source is an opinion other than my own.  Generally it is no issue.  Opinions, conversation, the ebb and flow of ideas, they are the olympics of my love of words - the big dance - the outward confidence saying one is ready to take the field and be a full functioning part of our world.  

As with all things you run into charlatans, and sometimes discerning what kind of information they are spewing can be difficult.  And then there is that pesky First Amendment. The society structure that I truly and deeply believe in guarantees their ability to do just that.   WHAT?!? WAIT? - and it covers more than free speech, it covers, religion, the press, assembly, and the ability to petition the Government regarding a grievance - all at the PERSONAL LEVEL! 

I scroll through example after example that we as a nation will support your right to your opinion however if that opinion causes harm to another, if those words are lies - NOW we have to define - discern lies - harm - and it takes more WORDS.  

I am an Input person according to a survey of my personality - I feel like I never know enough. I soak them up like a sponge.  When someone says - hey read this, take a look at that, what do you know about - well I am always going to go right to it. More and more often what comes in to my sphere of influence hits me like a sucker punch in the stomach. Words dripping with disdain, mangled information, sharpened, poisoned.  Here I stand with my fervent passion to defend the right to opinions - thoughts; to delve gleefully into ideas and measure them against my own heart. I find myself abruptly on the edge of what looks like a cesspool of acrid waste - and there are people, people I know and love saying come on in the water is fine.  

Here is where I am like my daughter - or she like me.  I find a place on the shore to observe.  I have an unquenchable desire to KNOW what they are swimming in, what could possibly be so intriguing? Am I ready, am I strong enough to get in and if its wrong get out.  

There are words that bombard us that are so manipulative that they change the very course of our belief without one moments questioning.  There are words - TODAY right now, out there,  while you are reading this (if you got this far) that are just wrong, oppressing, gibing, condescending, bigoted, nearly treasonous.  And then there is truth. 

The truth shall set you free.  I sang it, and still believe it.  If it isn't the truth there is a price.  A national economic price, a constitutional price, a personal price, phisological price.  For me the price not to speak truth to injustice, to the pharisitical judgement is an abomination of the resources I take up on this earth.

The Constitution's First Admendement. Precious words.  Some say the most important of them all, I repeat:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It does not say one word about being a better city with or with our the 10 Commandments of the Old Testament emblazoned on the courthouse wall - actually it is pretty specific about not doing that. It doesn't say one word about veiling, or couching your words in candy and flowers.  It doesn't say one word about using our chosen way of life to deride another; in fact - it is pretty clear about NOT doing that.  It speaks clearly that one's personal beliefs should not have any bearing NONE; when it comes to laws and government that govern us all. 

Everyday I am asked -  post this if you agree - post that - nothing original just a cut and paste from one person to the next, no thought, no research, understanding of what the sheep mentality has done to all of us. And sometimes there is not a shred of truth.  Every day I try to ignore it, and then this happens - words start pouring out and I can't stop.  I try to make sense - generally it winds up being more of a stream of consciousness - somewhere in it I hope that which is greater than all of us all is moving my heart, my fingers so that I reach just one - and then they reach one more - and that in that, my hope is, we have a chance to become a better community - across time, across nations.

All because I looked up, and on a video output monitor saw - a talking head, flashing its eyes, opening and closing its mouth at a rapid rate, words of all kinds surround it, flailing of hands - Surely I thought for an instant, surely there are important issues at hand.  Something that we should all be attuned.  When I finally found the remote and turned up the volume, precious words - the most powerful of all tools we has humans have, and frequently use - they being used to disect the tragic death of a little girl and its forever effect on the family. Thank you to the engineer that added the MUTE button!

While 2 residents here at castle Brown still have a cough that is reminiscent of the sound effects in an old black and white thriller; out the window are little specks of yellow.  Daffodils!  It is a day to take the camera with me and capture the promise of spring, I am sure along with some traces of the devastation from last nights storm.  Here in town we get the tornado sirens but generally the heat of the city lifts some of the damaging winds over us.  Sadly it drops right back down and just explodes on some neighborhoods that may not even here the sirens.  You know when the local OEM is asking everyone to please be home by 6:00 p.m. (which they did yesterday) they don't like what they see.  My friend David B. said how are we going to tell the foks out in the Three-Egg community?  What ever did they do before warnings?  Maybe it is because information moves way to fast, or perhaps not fast enough.

Fast enough is a good segue - How does it get to be 11:00 with my clothes in the dryer and the dryer not cooperating.  It stared out as such a lovely slow morning, and then wham...  makes me frown >.<   I am still in thought about yesterdays meditation.  Alas, it will have to back burner today at least.

Echo - echo - is anyone out there?