Right Arm—Reconsidering Liberty

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, 
but also by the abuse of power.     
                                                          —James Madison, fourth President of the United States

Promoting active liberty does not mean allowing the majority to run roughshod over minorities. It calls for taking special care that all groups have a chance 

to fully participate in society and the political process.

                                                     — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Having just celebrated the 4th of July we took time to recognize the birth of our nation and the concept of liberty. As Madison and the framers of the Constitution stated in the Bill of Rights, liberty means that individuals have rights and that no majority should be able to take them away.

   Right Arm (from Alcatraz Island)

While watching fireworks “bursting in air,” and now with the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, thoughts of these rights: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, a free press, the right of petition, assembly, privacy, due process and equality before the law are worth reconsidering.

Are all US citizens able to “participate in society and the political process,” or is the current majority party seeking to undermine these principles for its own political and financial gain?

In his 2012 presidential nomination acceptance speech Barak Obama reminded the country “that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.”

Right Arm

Taxes ramped up —shots rang out—a revolution began.

No army—no banks—no credit.

The king bowed—the king plundered—treaties hit the deck.

              A right arm was given.

Not for land—not for morality—

from the north and south a cry went out—dignity shackled—

tethered to terror.

An identity struggled to emerge.

Freedom wrestled with dollars.

                      

                  A right arm was given.

An archduke fell—submarines fired—a world made safe for democracy.

Pacifists, pessimists, neutralists gathered at the gates of war.

Munitions were drawn—warships were launched—profits were deposited.

                                                                                A right arm was given.

A fleet caught off guard—atrocities emerged—madmen seized the day.

A sleeping giant woke from its slumber.

Power, greed and barbarity rose with the morning sun.

A mushroom cloud left it all in its wake,

foreshadowing the future of a planet in peril.

                                                             A right arm was given.

No battle lines—no common tongue—towers tumbled—gas filled the air.

Ideologies clashed—liberty wrapped itself with suspicion and inherent resolve.

A boat bobbed on the horizon filled with hope for a new day

only to be capsized by fear of the other—

compassion lost in the mist.

                                                                                       A right arm was given.

Jeff Key’s work can also be seen at:

• Feedspot—Top 50 Contemporary Art Blogs And Websites To Follow in 2018 (Listed at #33)  https://blog.feedspot.com/contemporary_art_blogs/ 

 

• Life As a Human—The Human Interest Magazine for Evolving Minds

/https://lifeasahuman.com/2018/virtual-art-gallery/sculpture/is-there-life-on-mars/

Gualala— The Omniscient Gyre

Gualala—a Northern California town located on the coast. The name is derived from the Kashaya Pomo “ah kha wa la lee— where the water flows down.”

Gyre—a large system of circular ocean currents formed by global wind patterns and forces created by the Earth's rotation.

It’s a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, 

should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. 

But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, 

will continue to exist: the threat is rather to life itself.”

—Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us, Marine Biologist, Environmental Writer

June 8^th was World Oceans Day. As we move into summer, grab our towels, boogie boards, and head for the beach, it’s time to think about the world’s oceans and how to preserve these natural wonders.

From the rise in the sea level due to global warming to agricultural pesticides and sewage run off, oil spills, air pollution, acidification, overfishing, and the Earth’s garbage, the oceans are under barrage.

The ocean is the largest ecosystem on Earth—it is the planet's life support system. Oceans generate half of the oxygen we breathe and, at any given moment—they contain more than 97% of the world's water.

Gualala

I kissed the fog’s lips,

cold breath of goldenrod and lupine

parted to reveal weather-worn cuspids,

milled from a sore-knuckled, arthritic cypress,

caught in the rise and fall of the omniscient gyre.

A cacophony of silence:

salt licking stone,

pollen drifting,

bubbles burrowing,

all moving with the precision of a finely tuned ensemble.

A well-seasoned fiddler crab seizes the first movement,

summoning the swell of a crescendo

before surrendering the rondo to a clawed sea spider

flailing its eight finely tuned limbs

as the tide unfurls the final curtain.

I tasted the sky’s intransigence,

swallowing the banter between gale and luster.

An irascible squall stakes its claim on a promontory,

hovering at the continent’s edge.

Tributaries, branches and bluffs locked in a furtive embrace

don shimmering gowns of blue-green algae

before rushing into the sea—

drawn by the call of  a peripatetic wave.

                                                      —Jeff Key

Is There Life on Mars?

If there is life, then I believe we should do nothing to disturb that life.

Mars then, belongs to the Martians, even if they are microbes.  

—Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Astronomer, Astrophysicist

My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain

just like the land, air and sea. We may even have a Space Force.

—President Trump, Marine Corps Air Station-Miramar, San Diego, March 2018

In summer 2020 the Mars Exploration Mission will land another rover vehicle on the Red Planet in order to examine surface geology and to investigate a region of Mars where an ancient environment may have been favorable for microbial life. Will we find out at long last if there really is “life on Mars?”

What’s wrong with this picture?

• 1.7 trillion dollars a year are spent on the world’s militaries.

• Three billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day.

• Twenty-two thousand children a day die from conditions due to poverty.

                                                             (Statistics: UNICEF and Globalissues.org)

Since the first Mars Exploration Mission in 1964 the United States has spent 2.5 billion dollars on the venture and will spend an additional 2.4 billion by 2020.

                                                                     (Source: Office of Inspector General—2017 audit of NASA’s Mars 2020 project)

Are these missions to outer space for national security, economic benefit, scientific study, or to satisfy human curiosity by exploring the unknown—existential questions for beings on a small planet in the universe?

Is There Life on Mars?

Who owns the Earth?

Jeff Key—Vessel #43—Boundaries,  Wood, 42” x 42” x 12” 

Is it whoever is bigger and stronger?

Who owns the sky?

Is it whoever is smarter or more cunning?

Who owns the planets?

Is it whoever is there first?

The Mars Rover has landed.

Three hundred million miles from Earth—The product of the finest minds of the modern age— 

a new frontier christened with the burden of expectation.

Should we build a mall on Mars?

Only if it is assured that they will spend.

Should we strip the crust to the core?

Only if analysts guarantee the yield.

Should we displace the indigenous life?

Only if they’re squatting on the spoils.

Greed and destruction have landed.  Scars formed by years of indifference— 

a new millennium to be shaped by the hand of illusion.