I read, it seemed, a thousand books.
The looks I took through windows tall and wide
did not hide from me my sorrow and sadness felt
as I gazed upon the leafless trees outside.
The Mayor of Casterbridge did not move me once;
Othello did not touch me. The tears, the fears,
did not abate as I sat in wooden chairs;  
I simply starred at winter. I did not know how blind
I was, seeing with only one half of one eye.
I'd go into the stacks to cry;  a certain kind of comfort
were all the lonely books that kept me company.
No sudden symphony of enlightenment did I hear
as I leaned against the shelves, themselves my only friends.
The end seemed more near than spring seemed soon
to blossom. I often was content to read the poems
of William Blake and Tennyson and Coleridge and Keats
in dark corners where no one stood but I. But as darkness
grew to end the sun and color skies pure black,
I knew it time to say goodbye to rhythms and to rhymes
and begin my stroll along endless paths to sleep away
my hidden horrors, and as well, my sorrows sodden.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

All the 8 billion people on Earth--I call them "Citizens of Earth"--are the real government of Earth. Collectively, they should make all worldwide decisions. The technology to allow this to happen we already have:  enough cell phones for a group of 20 or fewer to vote on proposals that they themselves have created. No more despots, no more dictators, no more totalitarian rulers, no more wars, no more killings, just Citizens of Earth who, during the last two weeks of every month, will phone in their individual votes. (Please see and read and share PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE by googling it). A life of love and loving. Doesn't that sound better than having your father or mother, or your sister or brother, or your daughter or son be killed or maimed for life? Think about it. Then act, speak out, if you are so inclined. It's your home, Earth is.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The origin of prejudice has nothing to do with the other. It is about the unconscious self-hate of the bigot. If ever we wish to eradicate racism, we must come to that realization;  moreover, we must have the fortitude, the courage, to put our contempt for the racist's pernicious attitudes aside and love that racist to the point when the racist begins, for the first time, to feel loved to be able to love, not hate--a virulent form of prejudice--anyone else. This arguably is one of the most difficult tasks of even an enlightened individual, but is essential if ever we wish to have Peace on Earth forever, rather than total self-destruction.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The world of money-making businesses uses labels to table discussions of making peace. They would rather make profits of billions and billions. Multinationals dissemble, and much worse. Better to keep a distance from their hearts, the home of hope. It is safer that way, or so it seems. Yet reams teem of holocausts and atrocities, not simple exploitation. At the center of our moral beings is the treasure of love, the single most precious, persuasive substance to transmute pain into compassion, to turn hate into love. So give it a mighty shove, not tomorrow, but today. What say you? Are you willing to love for world peace, to fight with love, not bombs that make tombs? Loving makes endless love. Without a worldwide outpouring of love, Earth, and all living creations upon it, will soon perish. "Perish the thought," you say. I say act now to help create Peace on Earth forever.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I am one with sensibilities of an adagio. There are few things
I cannot describe with words. A beautiful adagio, I think, is one
of them. Its beauty is ineffable. All are musical poems, but one
is tinged with sorrow. I am thinking of Barber's ADAGIO FOR
STRINGS. PACHELBEL'S CANON, on the other hand,
is gentle and evocative, as is Albioni's adagio. You're sitting on
the sofa holding your sweetheart in your arms listening to
Bach's AIR ON THE G STRING as you give her a sweet kiss
on her neck. You dim the lights. Vivaldi's GUITAR CONCERTO
begins to play followed by Marcello's ADAGIO IN D MINOR
and then you give her another kiss, this one on her lips. It's
getting late, but there's still time to absorb the exquisite PAS DE
DEUX by Tchaikovsky from the NUTCRACKER. Now she
kisses you, not once, but many times. You slip in Beethoven's
MOONLIGHT SONATA, Debussy's CLAIR DE LUNE, Satie's
elegant TROIS GYMNOPEDIES, and Chopin's PRELUDE,
OP. 28, even though they are not adagios, but because they are
etheral. And before you and she go to bed to make love, you listen
to Rodrigo's CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ FOR GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA. No better foreplay exists.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

"Plausible deniability" is an euphemistic phrase often used, it seems, by the CIA, among many other spying agences around the world, that really means "lying."

Is "lying" what our flag stands for? Is "lying" what we really want our flag to stand for?

When push comes to shove (too often, literally, as in "off the cliff"), that's exactly what it stands for.

What a morally grotesque, spiritually denuded flag we therefore salute unwittingly.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Let's have a worldwide election for Peace on Earth forever! We're all Citizens of the Earth. Why not let everyone on Earth vote at the same time for the way she or he want the world to be. We already have the technology to do this. Do we collectively want world peace? Do we want to exercise our natural right to determine our own future? How many of you would vote for War--any kind of War, even World War III--that would destroy Earth and all living creation on it? Or would you prefer a world of equality, of kindness, of love? Would you prefer a world of letting everyone do her or his own thing, but do nothing that would cause harm to anyone else? All equals. No class system. No deprivation of food, good housing, great education, total freedom of religion (but no attempts to try to convert others). Citizens of Earth--all 8 billion of us--would be the government of Earth. There would be no president of Earth. Citizens of Earth would send their ideas and submissions to members of the General Assembly (around 200 elected for one five-year term by Citizens of Earth from districts that formerly were nations) who then would form them into proposals to be voted on by Citizens of Earth during the last two weeks of every month. Everyone worldwide would have access to smart phones (with one's own personal ID #). No more nations. No more borders (the world's air and water don't give a **** about them! Nor does the pandemic, with all it variants). We shall come to delight in our differences. We shall come to celebrate the variegated colors of skin, the different cultures, the different customs, languages, foods. No more aggrandizement, no more profiteering, no more money. No more wars, no more killings, no more *** trafficking. No more corruption, no more dictators, no more weapons of any kind. Just love and Peace on Earth forever. It's utterly doable! Think about it. Talk to your family about it. Talk to your friends about it. Talk to strangers on the street about it. It's our world, after all. Let's have an election and create a world in which we all can live without fear. Peace on Earth forever.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS