Freethought of the Day

Thomas Hobbes April 5 On this date in 1588, Thomas Hobbes was born prematurely  on "Good Friday" in England, his birth precipitated by his  mother's fear of the invasion of the Spanish Armada.  Thomas was the precocious son of a ne'er-do-well parson.  As a tutor, Hobbes made the "Grand Tour" of Europe three  times, once meeting Galileo. Contemporary  John Aubrey described Hobbes as "contemplative," and charitable, always carrying a pen and ink-horn in his cane,  with a notebook handy so he could jot down ideas during  daily constitutionals. Aubrey noted that Hobbes once wrote  a poem in Latin hexameter and pentameter "on the encroachments of the clergy on the civil power," which contained over 500 verses. De Cive was published in 1642, and Leviathan in 1651, in which Hobbes proposed the idea  that a "social contract" was necessary for civil peace. Its analysis of religion brought charges of atheism, then punishable by death. When things got too hot in England after Leviathan, Hobbes repaired to Paris. After the Great Plague in 1665 was followed by the Great Fire the next year, religionists sought a scapegoat. Parliament once more targeted Leviathan for being heresy. Hobbes hastily burned many of his papers. His writing helped give birth to the Enlightenment, by analyzing and questioning religious assumptions, and proposing that religion was created by humans. Hobbes attributed "opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion towards what men fear, and taking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seed of religion; which, by reason of the different fancies, judgements, and passions of several men, hath grown up into ceremonies so different that those which are used by one man are for the most part ridiculous to the other." Whether Deist, or covert atheist, Hobbes was anti-clerical, anti-Puritan and anti-Catholic, and managed to live out his full 91 years in perilous times due to influential friends. D. 1679. “Seeing there are no signs nor fruit of religion but in man only, there is no cause to doubt but that the seed of religion is also only in man. . .”  “Fear of power invisible, feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly allowed, RELIGION; not allowed, SUPERSTITION.”  “They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.” Compiled by Eleanor Wroblewski

Remembering the Women of Early Kansas

March 14, 2013

This is the first in a series of blogs for National Women's History Month

"I tell you but for the women of Kansas, it would have been abandoned in one week . . ."

On September 15, 1879, James Rogers spoke these words at the Old Settlers meeting in Bismarck Grove, Kansas. The gathering celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of Kansas settlement. He went on to describe the character of a woman in Kansas Territory:

"It seems to me that she must have been inspired of heaven during all those hours of our distress, for when the man grew weak, the woman grew strong. When the men became timid, the women became the more brave. When the men despaired, the women inspired them with hope."

One of those women, Julia Louisa Lovejoy, attended the meeting. Mrs. Lovejoy traveled with her husband, Reverend Charles Lovejoy, and their three children, to Kansas in 1855. Shortly after arriving, the couple's youngest daughter, Edith, died after contracting measles. At the settlers' meeting, she expressed her thoughts about those early days and her feelings about Kansas:

"In 1854 we christened Kansas and oh! I remember it well. Everybody seemed to be enthused with the spirit of freedom's crusade . . . We mothers have passed through a trying ordeal, but we can look back over the ground with a swell of pride in our hearts when we think of the glorious results as we have them before us now."

Women's Rights - Moneka, Kansas Style

March 22, 2013      

 This is the second in a series of blog posts for Women's History Month

Boasting forty-two members from a population of two hundred, the Moneka Women's Rights Assocation of Moneka, Kansas Territory, committed themselves early on to fight for equality for women. Chartered in February 1858, the group organized themselves in a town that had itself been founded in Linn County in eastern Kansas just the previous year. The group included several male members. The dedication of the membership to their cause showed the character of a community still struggling to provide the basics for its citizens.

Here are words from the Association's Preamble:

"Because, Woman is constituted of body and mind and has all the common wants of the one and the natural powers of the other

Because she is a progressive being ever out-growing the past and demanding a higher and greater future - or in other words,

Because she is a Human Being and as such is endowed by her Creator with the full measure of human rights whether educational, social or political . . ."

The group petitioned the Territorial legislature to enact laws to protect women's rights, including a woman's right to retain any property that she possessed before marriage and a woman's right to a "just proportion of the joint property of the husband and wife acquired during marriage."

One of the Association's credos, adopted at the February 27, 1858 meeting, read:

"Whereas women can not vote and yet feel the necessity of just laws, therefore Res. that every woman in Kansas who believes that equal rights belong to women should consider herself a committee of one whose duty it is to do all in her power to convert to her views at least one legal voter."

Those legal voters to be targeted? Men, the only legal voters.

National Women's History Month brings attention to many prominent women in our history. But let us not forget groups like the Moneka Women's Rights Association who played an important part in the struggle for women's equality.

This is the third post in honor of National Women’s History Month

Like most citizens of New England, Lucy Larcom had never seen the broad expanse of Kansas. But also like most citizens of New England in 1855, she had heard about, and had strong feelings about, the slavery question and how it should play out in the new territory.

Lucy had been born in Beverly, Massachusetts and lived in Lowell as a young woman, a town also home to poet and Free-state proponent John Greenleaf Whittier. Whittier encourage Lucy, an aspiring writer. In 1855, while a teacher at Monticello Female Seminary, Lucy heard about a contest sponsored by the New England Emigrant Aid Company calling for a Kansas poem. The New England Emigrant Aid Company was organized to assist in making Kansas a free state and was strangely both a money-making endeavor and a charitable operation. The group encouraged migration to the state and assisted eastern emigrants with many aspects of their travel, especially by conducting organized settlement parties.

Lucy's entry, "The Call to Kansas," won the fifty dollar prize. The poem was set to music and served as an anthem for many who left their comfortable homes in New England for the Kansas frontier.

Here is the opening verse:

Yeomen strong, hither throng,

Nature's honest men!

We will make the wilderness

Bud and bloom again.

Bring the sickle, speed the plough,

Turn the ready soil!

Freedom is the noblest pay

For the true man's toil.

Ho, brothers! Come brothers!

Hasten all with me!

We'll sing upon the Kansas plains

A song of liberty!

When contacted in 1891 by the Kansas Historical Society to comment on the poem, Lucy said that the poem brought back many memories of the Kansas border struggles and the excitement that the situation there caused in New England. She commented, "I have always hoped to visit Kansas, but never found opportunity to do so." Her words did travel to Kansas, however, with thousands of others.

Linda Johnston    

Pen Woman & Member of Women Writing the West

 

The Last Bookstore

When all other bookstores are gone, The Last Bookstore will probably still be there -- at least for the next 5 or 10 years.  It is a bookstore as art and a bookstore as playground well worth visiting while that's still possible.  Where?  At 5th and Spring streets in downtown Los Angeles.


Just about everything makes this bookstore different from others.  First of all, there are 16,000 square feet of it.  The aptly named Labyrinth takes one through a tunnel of books to a bank vault that is the reading room, time travel portholes, and a secret passageway that goes into a hidden book room.  Artists are given free rein to use their imagination in decorating the bookstore that houses perhaps 100,000 books -- all selling for the bargain price of $1 each.


Why?  Interviewed by Deborah Vankin of the L.A. Times, the 37 year old owner of this gigantic funhouse said he wanted to "create a community creative space that also happens to be a bookstore.  There are so many ideas in books, inspirations."  An old bank with a 25-foot-high ceiling, pillars, and mosaic tile floor helped him envision what kind of bookstore he wanted it to become.  He asked himself, "What if civilization collapsed and there was one bookstore left, what would that look like?"


Along with his vision was a bookstore that people could get lost in as they went on a treasure hunt for books.  That's why there is a quirky order for some books lined up perhaps by color or simply size -- short books here, tall books there, hardcover here, Russian language books there.  Round a corner, and there is a row of art studios with artists to sell their own creations.


Who buys these books?  Could be hoarders who must surround themselves with books.  Could be tv or movies that need books for their props.  Could be the small entrepreneurs who buy for $1 and sell for $3.  Could be voracious readers and bookworms.  Could be the dwindling numbers of people who like to actually hold a book they're reading.  Could be for the warm camaraderie of adjacent readers that a computer can't duplicate.


The 500 to 1,000 books a day that come into the bookstore and the occasional valuable book keep the inventory churning enough to bring in enough of a profit for the owner, although he feels successful just by the gratitude that he feels from his customers -- and authors.

Comments?? E-mail Suellen at ZimaTravels.com

FREE FROM SOCIAL STIGMA

 

One time, a friend of mine asked me if I was ashamed to tell the world that I used to be loose. As much as it is something to be ashamed of, I realized that I'm no longer ashamed of anything that I've done. Here's why and how you can free yourself from social stigma:

When I participated in certain lifestyles, I did so for whatever reason, hating myself the whole while. And in all my self-loathing, my conditions in life only grew worse. The more I dabbled in unacceptable behavior, the less hope I had of ever coming out of this life with any level of success. Finally, I was introduced fully into Christianity and learned one immutable truth- no one, NOBODY, not a soul is perfect and sinless! (Nope, not the Bradys down the street, or the McCoys up the road, not judges, probation officers, cops, not doctors and attorneys, not even the best pastors with the deepest revelations.) Can you imagine how freeing that was?

Finally, I was able to understand that God loves me regardless and always did, even in my lowest points. I was also able to see that the people I was most ashamed in front of were in no better shape as it pertains to flaws, and were in no position to judge the mistakes I'd made. I was able to embrace the love and forgiveness of God and eventually able to forgive myself. After that, the forgiveness and acceptance of others is like an optional feature on a luxury car... it isn't necessary though it is nice when you have it. Do you yet understand what I'm trying to say?

Don't hold your head down and mope around feeling like the scum of the earth or ashamed because you've done dumb things, made foolish decisions and hurt others. WE ALL HAVE. Don't give up on yourself based upon the life you previously lived. Everyone deserves as many chances as it takes to get it right, not just second chances. Give yourself that room to change and don't dare forget or be ashamed of where you come from, whether it is homosexuality, promiscuous living, prostitution, drug use, drug dealing, violence, sexual abuse or mental illness. Honey, that is where your testimony and power lie!

Lacresha Hayes

For more information about me, visit my website at www.lacreshahayes.com or connect with me on FB at www.facebook.com/lacreshahayes2. And of course, I'm tweeting at @lacreshahayes

Movin' Stuff Around

 

 Do you know what people are about?
I'll tell you what people about
They're all about movin' stuff around
Underneath all that complicated
        technology, psychology, sociology, and civilization
Up close, they're just about
        movin' stuff around

Now, I'm not talking about ants, and bees and termites
        that have exact reasons for movin' things around
Or squirrels 'n pack rats storing stuff to eat
Not even talking about those big oscar fish in tanks
        that move rocks around to claim territory
Nope, people are even worse than crows
        picking up shiny stuff to horde in their nests
        for no earthly reason

Now, people will go out and purchase stuff they can't afford
        can't eat, don't need, and won't use
They will spend weeks shopping for stuff, searching for stuff
         new stuff, old stuff, valuable stuff
        and chasing the thrill of buying bargain stuff
They’ll put all that out on layaway
        or pay with cash and credit cards
        or coupons and debit cards
Then they’ll bag it up, cart it home, open it up, try it on, plug it in     
        and see if it works
They will arrange it, rearrange it, and arrange it again
They’ll push it over here and drag it over there
        or try to find some other place
Any other place
Then they’ll stack it up, hang it up, pile it up, put it up
        store it in a nook or hang it on a hook
Just so they can collect even more valuable stuff!
Of course, they'll see more, find more, and buy more
They’ll work another job so they can get more
And they'll even buy bigger homes than they can afford
Just so they can have all that stuff


Hey, whatcha’ got there?  Well, that there’s a genuine 1956
       Chevy four barrel carburetor
You bet,  like new
That there’s a real keeper
Never know when you’re gonna’ need something like that

Now don’t touch that little red propeller hat there on the coffee table 
That’s part of my Beany and Cecil collection
Oh, I just loved Beany and Cecil when I was growing up   Didn’t you?

Look here
I’ve just got to show you my great grandmother Edna’s wonderful 1920’s button collection
It’s worth some real money nowadays


Well, finally they'll try to organize all that stuff
 They’ll count and catalog, match and improve
        try to keep it up to date
       restore it
       take it apart, fix it, modify it
       redesign it, follow the trends
 And after that, they're forever cleaning it, washing it, dusting it off
       shining it, and, in the end
       spending hard earned money to insure it to just keep it safe
At last, they'll stand back and admire it, tire of it, retire it
       and then downright just  forget it
Because they’re off to the store to buy new stuff!

Well, pretty soon it gets to be too much for everybody
They'll have to take all that old stuff out
        and just get rid of it
So they'll box it up, wrap it up, tuck it away
        put it in the closet, throw it in a corner, shelve it, hoard it
        stuff it under the bed, store it in the laundry room
       move it to the garage, or hide it in the shed
Next, they'll just get busy and move all that old stuff out for good
Period!

They'll try to sell it, give it away, hand it down, throw it away
        drop it off, pitch it in the trash
        burn it, bury it, leave it on the roadside
And sometimes, they’ll just plain pick themselves up, and move away

Well now, don't let 'em tell you that life is all about
        culture, technology, science and civilization
It's just about people moving stuff around

c  10/07   Sandy HartmanEven in the most hackneyed, mundane things we do, there are profound surprises and lessons.   To hear the audio reading of this poem and see 

the slide shows, go to    www.eonwriter.com.