Live how you love.
Love how you live.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Every life is precious, every life is good.
Yours, mine, her, his. Yellow, brown, black,
brown. Eyes slanted, eyes round. Tall, short.
slim, rotund. Healthy, sick, disabled. LBGTQ.
Living or dying. Rich, poor, anywhere in between.
Educated, illiterate, brilliant or dim-witted.
All need food, housing, healthcare. All need
clean water and air. All have a heart. And all
need love. Everyone needs love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

War is a crime.
Use only devices that temporarily incapacitate, but never
permanently harm.
All weapons from handguns to hydrogen bombs will be destroyed.
No political borders.
Celebrate diversity.
Share all.
Each Citizen of Earth has the responsibility to treat all well.
Each Citizen of Earth has the right to be treated well by all.
Citizens of Earth will govern Earth.
There will be no president of Earth.
No substance that poisons Earth will be allowed.
Peace on Earth forever.
No laws, only Love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Racism is the worst mental illness amongst us all. It metastasizes in our hearts and spreads throughout our lives hurting, often destroying, our sisters and brothers whose skins are of a different color than ours. But if we were to close our eyes and open our hearts, we would embrace them. "Come, join us for dinner. Tell us how your day was," we would say. All 8 billion of us would have a feast. Earth, the only home we all have, would no longer know wars, only peace. We would care and share. Generosity would supplant genocide. All air and water would be clear and toxic-free. With glee, we all would celebrate our ultimate freedom:  the right to be our real selves, helping, not harming, all others. There would be no weapons, no weeping over other lives killed, no artificial boundaries despots use to keep us desperate and distant from others whom we love. We do not have to die to incur the same noxious fate. Open your eyes and hearts to see and feel we are one.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Do not worry,
I am sorry.
I thought you loved me,
but I was wrong.
I longed to be with you,
but go on your way now.
I'll see you often
in my dreams.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Forget the future, past has passed, live in the now.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Nannie and I would grab our empty “TV”  milk
cartons and run to the bus stop up the hill.
Soon the bus would get there and we would
get on. We would sit up front. Not many were
on the bus Saturday morning. We were on
our way downtown to see a Tom Mix movie.
If you had an empty “TV” milk carton, you
could get in free. Often, but not always, we
had the same bus driver. He was an old man
who, for some reason, knew that Nannie and
I were the children of Rae Antoinette Tod, the
granddaughter of W. J. Tod, the rich and fa-
mous founder of the Tod Ranch, the famous
cattle ranch just outside Maple Hill, Kansas,
about 18 miles west of Topeka where Nannie
and I grew up. Maple Hill essentially was where
the lush, rolling Flint Hills began, some, if not
the best, cattle-raising country in the world.
Nannie and I would chat with this old bus
driver as we made our way downtown. This
old man would tell us of the days when he
had worked as a young cattle hand on the
Tod Ranch. He would always talk about W. J.,
our great-grandfather. He would always tell
us what a great, kind man he was to everybody
who worked for him on his ranch. But never
once did the old bus driver mention how rich
and famous W. J. had been. He never men-
tioned that W. J. had become president of
The National Livestock Association, for ex-
ample. The old bus driver talked only about
how W. J. treated all who worked on the Tod
Ranch, even the cowhands, who the old bus
driver was once one of, with respect. I have
never forgotten what the old bus driver repeatedly
had told us about our great-grandfather, and
even as a boy, I realized then that I wanted
to be like my great-grandfather had been,
not rich and famous, but much, much more
importantly, kind and respectful to all.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

What do we make of our lives??
Are they simply a concatenation
of different distances with different
endings? Do not most of us hope
to love and be loved, to be successful
in meeting our goals be they accruing
wealth or helping create peace around
the world? And don't so many of us
spend our lives fighting our demons
be they alcoholism or the like?
So many of our lives are filled with
heartbreak and sorrow, torment and
tragedy. Humanity runs a race that
has no finish line. The most important
question each runner must ask is  
"Did I realize my real self?"

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There was a time
when I was a boy
and girls mystified me.
There was a time
as I grew older
when girls were
about my age and
I was more excited
than mystified.
There was a time
when I was almost
20 and girls were
no longer girls but
young women who
hugged me and kissed
me and I was no longer
afraid of the night. The
stars embraced me just
like her lissome arms
did and moonlight fell
on our lips as they met
it seemed like forever.
There was a time when
I undressed her button
by button until she stood
in front of me panting
and naked and I picked
her up and lay her gently
on the white sheet and
through  her moans shared
with her our ecstasy.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I have died.
No more shall I ever be a human being.
Never again shall I live on Earth.
I am now pure love.
I have no form, no beginning, no end.
I am infinity, as you will also be,
as well as all who came before
and will come after,
after many reincarnations.
Blessed is eternity.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Let us build a wall
on which we carve
the names of all
6 million Jews
murdered by Nazis.

Let us build a wall
on which we carve
the names of all
killed in WW I and II.

Let us build a wall
of sand each grain glued
by horror of all those
slaughtered throughout
millennia.

But let us now
build no more walls,
but the bridge of love,
a mosaic of mankind--
colors, cultures, cuisines
and more.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The world within us is larger than the world around us.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and CASABANCA are tied as my most favorite film I've ever seen in my life, Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in the former, Ingrid Bergman--the most beautiful woman I've ever seen--and Humphrey Bogart, a fellow Andover alum (he got kicked out his first year).

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is, indeed, tied as my most favorite movie.

But it's also a documentary.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Time is but a breeze
wafting through oak leaves
first green, then yellow,
finally brown and brittle;
a breeze blowing through
her soft, long hair first
brunette, then blonde,
finally grey;  a breeze
lifting swallows high
into blue sky, winged ones
aiming for the sun and
the morning star beyond.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Silence is most eloquent.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I just finished watching the movie LEAN ON ME (1989).

I graduated from Andover often considered the best high school in America. But the school I just watched in the movie is better than Andover. The school is Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ.

Morgan Freeman, who I consider the best actor ever, stars in the movie. If you have never seen the movie, see it now. If you have already seen it, see it again.

The story of the movie is a microcosm of the state of Earth. The new principal of Eastside, Joe Clark, played by Freeman, saves the high school and the lives of all associated with it--students, parents, teachers--through his love and the love he regenerates in all of them.

As I have said before, only love can save Earth, the love of all 8,000,000,000 of us.

Lean on all others.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I just finished watching the movie LEAN ON ME (1989).

I graduated from Andover often considered the best high school in America. But the school I just watched in the movie is better than Andover. The school is Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ.

Morgan Freeman, who I consider the best actor ever, stars in the movie. If you have never seen the movie, see it now. If you have already seen it, see it again.

The story of the movie is a microcosm of the state of Earth. The new principal of Eastside, Joe Clark, played by Freeman, saves the high school and the lives of all associated with it--students, parents, teachers--through his love and the love he regenerates in all of them.

As I have said before, only love can save Earth, the love of all 8,000,000,000 of us.

Lean on all others.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

This is an ode to the odious.

Racists, bigots, neo-Nazis, even an ex-president of the United States, members of militias, groups of sick men, and women, who **** those different from themselves:  Blacks, Jews, Asians, indigenous peoples, immigrants, human beings who have skin brown, yellow, and yes, black;  gays and lesbians;  human beings who practice different religions from their own--that is, if they practice any religion.

You are craven. You embrace only anonymity, except the few who spread your lies on social media. You all are terribly mentally ill.

I have a proposal for all of you:  **** ME FIRST.

I promise I will never **** you, because I **** nothing. All forms of life to me are sacred, even yours. I feel so sorry for you. You were not loved enough growing up, if at all.

Before you shoot me dead or run over me with your car or ******* up or set fire to where I live and burn me to death or lynch me after you have castrated me then burned me, I will say a prayer for you and tell all of you I love each of you.

**** me first.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

This is an ode to the odious.

Racists, bigots, neo-Nazis, even an ex-president of the United States, members of militias, groups of sick men, and women, who **** those different from themselves:  Blacks, Jews, Asians, indigenous peoples, immigrants, human beings who have skin brown, yellow, and yes, black;  human beings who practice different religions from their own--that is, if they practice any religion.

You are craven. You embrace only anonymity, except the few who spread your lies on social media. You all are terribly mentally ill.

I have a proposal for all of you:  **** ME FIRST.

I promise I will never **** you, because I **** nothing. All forms of life to me are sacred, even yours. I feel so sorry for you. You were not loved enough growing up, if at all.

Before you shoot me dead or run over me with your car or ******* up or set fire to where I live and burn me to death or lynch me after you have castrated me then burned me, I will say a prayer for you and tell all of you I love each of you.

**** me first.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

REMEMBRANCES
Hut, 2, 3, 4. Hut, 2, 3, 4. I was 4-and-a-half years old. Dad lay on his bed reading books as he gave me marching orders. I marched to his cadence through rooms and hallways upstairs. I was Dad's good, little boy for the first 22 years of my life. I was 23 when I found out Mom had had an affair--Dad actually had walked into the room and saw his naked wife in the arms of a naked man--when I was 4-and-a-half. Blew Dad away for the rest of his life. That's when Dad began--I believe, unconsciously--to live out his dreams vicariously through his only son, me--not a good idea. I remember all too well how an ominous, dark, toxic cloud enveloped all 5 of us (I had 2 sisters). I enjoyed going to grade school more than being at home. I had a number of friends during those years:  Bruce, Virginia (my first girlfriend), Ralph, another Bruce. Dad had made himself rich, growing up dirt-poor, working assiduously, becoming wealthy. Mom, on the other hand, came from one of the most socially prominent and wealthiest families in Kansas. The sad news was she was extremely depressed virtually her entire life. The good news for me was Maggie, our maid and my surrogate mother, who made me breakfast every morning--two poached eggs, grits, and two pieces of wholewheat toast. Maggie washed my ***** clothes, spanked me when I needed a spanking, hugged me with her two big, black arms when I needed to be loved, brought me a sandwich and a bottle of Squirt when I was sick in bed. God bless Maggie! In junior high, I was elected co-captain of the football team and the basketball team, and president of the student council. I was elected president of our sophomore class at Topeka High by my 800 classmates. But Dad had dreams for me, so he sent me to Andover, considered with Exeter, Eton, and Harrow the best prep schools in the world. I chose to matriculate at Columbia over Yale, because spending four more years at the latter would have been like spending four more years at Andover, which I had not liked. I loved Columbia. I kid from Kansas, I found living in and exploring New York City for four years made me a de facto Citizen of the World despite the fact that I would wind up living life after college in a number of different cities. Dad had wanted me to become a lawyer, then get a MBA, then work on Wall Street, make millions (now billions), so Dad never forgave me for dropping out of law school my first semester. In time, I became a poet and human-rights advocate for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I found my real self.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Hut, 2, 3, 4. Hut, 2, 3, 4. I was 4-and-a-half years old. Dad lay on his bed reading books as he gave me marching orders. I marched to his cadence through rooms and hallways upstairs. I was Dad's good, little boy for the first 22 years of my life. I was 23 when I found out Mom had had an affair--Dad actually had walked into the room and saw his naked wife in the arms of a naked man--when I was 4-and-a-half. Blew Dad away for the rest of his life. That's when Dad began--I believe, unconsciously--to live out his dreams vicariously through his only son, me--not a good idea. I remember all too well how an ominous, dark, toxic cloud enveloped all 5 of us (I had 2 sisters). I enjoyed going to grade school more than being at home. I had a number of friends during those years:  Bruce, Virginia (my first girlfriend), Ralph, another Bruce. Dad had made himself rich, growing up dirt-poor, working assiduously, becoming wealthy. Mom, on the other hand, came from one of the most socially prominent and wealthiest families in Kansas. The sad news was she was extremely depressed virtually her entire life. The good news for me was Maggie, our maid and my surrogate mother, who made me breakfast every morning--two poached eggs and two pieces of wholewheat toast. Maggie washed my ***** clothes, spanked me when I needed a spanking, hugged me with her two big, black arms when I needed to be loved, brought me a sandwich and a bottle of Squirt when I was sick in bed. God bless Maggie! In junior high, I was elected co-captain of the football team and the basketball team, and president of the student council. I was elected president of our sophomore class at Topeka High by my 800 classmates. But Dad had dreams for me, so he sent me to Andover, considered with Exeter, Eton, and Harrow the best prep schools in the world. I chose to matriculate at Columbia over Yale, because spending four more years at the latter would have been like spending four more years at Andover, which I had not liked. I loved Columbia. I kid from Kansas, I found living in and exploring New York City for four years made me a de facto Citizen of the World despite the fact that I would wind up living life after college in a number of different cities. Dad had wanted me to become a lawyer, then get a MBA, then work on Wall Street, make millions (now billions), so Dad never forgave me for dropping out of law school my first semester. In time, I became a poet and human-rights advocate for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I found my real self.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The more love you give, the more love you will have to give.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

THOSE WHO RULE

We shall keep the poor poor.

We shall be on them like

a master’s whip on the backs

of slaves; but they will not

know us: we are too far and

too near. We shall use the

patois of patriotism to patronize

them. We shall hide behind our

flags while we hold only one pole.

We shall have the poor fight our

wars for us, and die for us; and

before they die, they will **** for

us, we hope, enough. In peace,

we shall piecemeal them and serve

them meals made of toxins and tallow.

For their labor, we shall pay them

slave wages;  and all that we give,

we shall take back, and more, by

monumental scandals that subside

like day’s sun at eventide. We shall

be clever, as ever, circumspect and

surreptitious at all times. We shall

keep them deluded with the verisimilitude

of hope, but undermine always its

being. We shall infuse their lives

with fear and hate, playing one

race against another, one religion

against a brother’s. Disaffection is

our key; but we must modulate our

efforts deftly, so the poor remain

frightened and angered, and always

blind and deaf and divided. And if,

perchance, one foments, we shall

seize the moment and drop his head

into his hands, even as he speaks.

This internecine brew we pour, there-

fore, into the poor to keep them drunk

with enmity and incapacitation. Ah,

eternal anticipation! Bottoms up,

old chaps! We, those who rule,

shall have them always in our laps.

We are, as it were, their salvation.


TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We shall keep the poor poor.

We shall be on them like

a master’s whip on the backs

of slaves; but they will not

know us: we are too far and

too near. We shall use the

patois of patriotism to patronize

them. We shall hide behind our

flags while we hold only one pole.

We shall have the poor fight our

wars for us, and die for us; and

before they die, they will **** for

us, we hope, enough. In peace,

we shall piecemeal them and serve

them meals made of toxins and tallow.

For their labor, we shall pay them

slave wages;  and all that we give,

we shall take back, and more, by

monumental scandals that subside

like day’s sun at eventide. We shall

be clever, as ever, circumspect and

surreptitious at all times. We shall

keep them deluded with the verisimilitude

of hope, but undermine always its

being. We shall infuse their lives

with fear and hate, playing one

race against another, one religion

against a brother’s. Disaffection is

our key; but we must modulate our

efforts deftly, so the poor remain

frightened and angered, and always

blind and deaf and divided. And if,

perchance, one foments, we shall

seize the moment and drop his head

into his hands, even as he speaks.

This internecine brew we pour, there-

fore, into the poor to keep them drunk

with enmity and incapacitation. Ah,

eternal anticipation! Bottoms up,

old chaps! We, those who rule,

shall have them always in our laps.

We are, as it were, their salvation.


TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We have mined our mountains,
we have fished our seas,
we have felled our forests,
we have gathered our grains,
but we have not yet embraced
the infinite energy of our souls,
which is love.

Tod Howard Hawks

As some you know from reading my brief bio below the pieces I have written and posted for HELLO POETRY, I have spent a good part of my life as a human-rights advocate. I'd like to share with you a special recollection of mine with you now so you'll know that the way I share my humanity with those who need some kindness is different often from the ways others do.

It was the spring of 1992. I was in New York City to attend a meeting of Columbia College's Board of Directors of which I was a member. I was walking down Broadway toward Tom's Restaurant, one of my haunts when I was an undergraduate. I was going to have breakfast, my all-time favorite meal. As I walked along, I saw ahead of me a tall black man holding a styrofoam cup hoping those who walked by him might drop a quarter or two into his cup. When I got to where this man was standing, I stopped in front of him. My stopping right in front of him surprised him, I'm sure. I stuck out my right arm hoping to shake his, and as I did, I said, "My name is Tod Hawks. What's your name?" This man was incredulous. Finally, after a long, awkward pause, he said "Hechamiah." I said "Hechamiah what." There was another long pause. Finally, Hechamiah said, "Hechamiah Moore." I then said, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Moore. I'm on my way to have dinner at Tom's Restaurant. Would you like to join me and be my guest?" Mr. Moore was stunned. Another long pause. Finally, Mr. Moore said, "OK." So we began walking together down Broadway toward Tom's Restaurant, and as we walked, we started chatting. I found out Hechamiah was from North Carolina, had married his sweetheart when both were 16, then came to New Jersey
where Hechamiah got a job in some kind of factory. But ten years prior to our meeting, his wife died unexpectedly. Hechamiah told me he just couldn't stand it, so he started drinking and didn't stop. Eventually, he was fired, and for the last eight years had been homeless.

At this point, we reached 112th Street and needed to cross Broadway to enter Tom's Restaurant. We crossed half of Broadway, in the middle of which there was sort of an island where there were a couple of benches. There, Hechamiah just stopped. I asked him, "What's wrong, Mr. Moore?" Hechamiah, after another pause, said to me, "I don't think they want me in there." I paused this time, then I said, "Mr. Moore, there are two reasons why you are going into Tom's with me. First, you are my friend. The second is the United States Constitution." Another pause.  Hechamiah stepped off the island's curb and began to walk across the other half of Broadway. I joined him.

We entered Tom's, first Hechamiah and then I. I saw an empty booth in the rear of the restaurant. I walked ahead of Hechamiah to the booth, then we both took a seat. I could see and feel that Hechamiah was extremely nervous. A lovely middle-aged waitress came over and handed each of us a menu. When she returned a few minutes later, she asked what we would like to order. I told her Mr. Moore was my guest. She looked at Hechamiah and asked him what he wanted. "A cup of Manhattan clam chowder," said Hechamiah. "That's all you want, Mr. Moore?" I said with surprise. He nodded yes. I ordered breakfast.

Hechamiah and I continued chatting. I told him I had been spending the past year traveling around the country seeing and talking to people who were hungry and homeless and hopeless. Politicians, I told him, were interested only in polls and percentages. I was interested in people's pain, so much of which I had experienced, and hoped to help find ways to allay it. I told Hechamiah I had delivered a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, had traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the southwest corner of South Dakota--still the poorest place in America, to Houston where several hundred black men slept on folded cardboard boxes that lay on cold cement sidewalks along both sides Prescott Street, 24/7, to Atlanta where I met with Martin Luther King III and former President Carter at the Carter Center, as well as other places and other people.

The waitress had brought us our meals in the interim. We both had finished eating. At that juncture, I said to Hechamiah, "Are you sure you don't want something else to eat, Mr. Moore?" I could see and feel that Hechamiah was becoming increasingly at ease as we shared food and conversation. He said, in fact, he would. When our waitress came by again, Hechamiah was so relaxed that he started to joke with her as he ordered a full meal, and our waitress was so sweet, she just joined in the fun.

Hechamiah finished his meal in short order. It was time to leave Tom's. When we reached the entrance, Hechamiah began to push the door open, but as he had the door just half open, he turned around and said to me, "Mr. Hawks, you are a kind man." I said to Hechamiah, "Mr. Moore, you are a good man." We both stepped onto the sidewalk and shook hands and began to walk in different directions into the darkness, but with our stomachs, and our hearts, much fuller than they had previously been.

Tod Howard Hawks

Ilsa's hair blew like silk in the soft Parisian breeze.
Rick looked 10 years younger driving his sportster
down Champs-Elysees. Arc de Triomphe was in the
distance. Young, radiant, Ilsa was the most beautiful
woman in the world. Every man who ever saw her
instantly fell in love with her, myself included. The
German army was only a day from entering Paris,
but that didn't stop Rick from proposing to Ilsa in
La Belle Aurore as Sam played AS TIME GOES BY.
That Ilsa didn't meet Rick in the pounding rain at
the train station as they had planned to take it to
Marseille on their way to Casablanca foreshadowed
the protracted, brutal war the Nazis had already
begun one conquest after another across Europe.
But ****** was not prescient enough to realize
"...a kiss is just a kiss...." and in his Berlin bunker
first swallowed a cyanide capsule then put the muzzle
of his revolver into his mouth and pulled the trigger,
his only constructive act since becoming Chancellor
in 1933.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

To be perfect is to be imperfect.

When you meet a person you do not like,
love her or him.

Everyone has the power to transmute
her/his hate into love by being loved.

Hate has turned the world inside-out,
so turn the world rightside-in.

Return hate with love.

Flood Earth with peace.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE


Turning the World Right-Side In

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 8,00,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, if at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover through being loved so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals each month during the last two weeks of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, are. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2022 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todh21376@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through LOVE.)

a nation, a notion,
hegemony or honey,
a cruel ruler or a kind mind,
all for one or some for all,
aggrandize, or wiser still,
enough for billions,
gentle hands for a broken heart,
lavender love to assuage pain,
head on your pillow alone in the dark,
no fear as sun soon rises,
a nation, a notion,
take love's lotion and spread
it to dissolve all borders.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The World Picnic,
8,000,000,000 sisters and brothers,
7,000 languages and dialects,
no borders,
one ocean,
nothing missing
except wars, weapons,
racism and hate,
skins of all colors,
joy and love,
no money, just honey,
all kinds of music and foods and cultures,
dancing through the night,
laughter all day long,
clean water,
fresh air,
caring and sharing,
owning only
a right to be free,
a responsibility to be
kind to all others,
no jails and prisons,
but Love Centers instead,
helping, not hurting,
realizing the sacred in all,
liberty, equality, fraternity,
finally PLANET PEACE.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Love is the only religion.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

TO SHED MY TEARS

I'm sitting on the curb in late July between Al's
Barbershop and Harry's Hardware watching ants
making their way to the gutter where they disappear.
Busby, Nebraska is not a big town--in fact, it's not
even a small town--in fact, it's not even a town. It's
three blocks long, but Ethel's Cafe is open for break-
fast and lunch. And most importantly, it's on the
way to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation located
in the remote southwestern corner of South Dakota
where I'm headed on foot. I've been to Pine Ridge a
number of times. Something calls me there from time
to time. Not sure what it is--kind of like a spiritual
whisper. Only got 23 more miles to get there. I walk
wherever I go--reminds me of Wordsworth's THE
WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US. I say I'm going
to Pine Ridge, but actually I'm headed to Wounded
Knee Cemetery, about ten miles east of Pine Ridge,
where so many of the Lakota Sioux men, women,
and children were slaughtered, then buried, the
last massacre of indigenous people by the U. S.
Army in 1890. I sit on the ground and cry and cry.
The dry grasses soak up my tears as fast as they
hit the ground.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Commerce or mercy?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Things cling.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Every language is a song, every dialect
a dialogue. Sounds without letters
conveyed love for millennia. **** nothing,
for all are our brothers and sisters. Wander
into woods, pick berries and seeds.
Say a prayer. Splash in a cool creek.
Make no path as you walk across an
open field. Hills become higher. Soon
they are mountains. Know snow. Find
your way to the ocean. Beaches tell you
you're there. Waves keep greeting you.
Sunrays  and warm breezes blow you
dry as you lie naked in the sand. Our
land is all of these. Say another prayer
and give thanks.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Life begins at conception.

For a human being to be able to love, she/he must first be loved, usually by her/his biological parents, other times by her/his surrogate parents. If the newborn is not loved, she/he will suffer great pain, possibly even dying.

Most human beings do not receive the love they need;  thus, they will unconsciously compensate usually in one or more of three ways:  accrual of power, not to empower others, but to oppress them;  aggrandizement of wealth;  or achievement of fleeting fame.

If, on the other hand, they are loved, they will love all others throughout their lives, realizing their personhood, which is their innate sacredness. If they are not loved, they will realize one or more of their deleterious behaviors.

When all die, those who realized their personhood will not return to Earth to live another life, because their soul has become pure love that bonds with the pure love of infinity, which is reality that has no form, no beginning, no end. They have become enlightened and will be so forever.

Those who did not attain their personhood, realizing only one or more of their deleterious behaviors, will need to return to Earth in a new life unconsciously to make another attempt to attain enlightenment.

Love is infinite, the finite illusory. The latter remains nonetheless the paradoxical path to the reality of eternal love.

Know truth by untruth.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There's somethin' awful wrong with the world,
been that way for a long time. This planet we live on,
it's the only place we's got. You can't walk from
one end of it to the other, 'cause it's round,
and you ain't gonna find nothing better at the
end of it, 'cause there ain't one. Yeah, you can
dump all your junk and garbage on the side of
the road, but after time, there's ain't no place
to do that no more. And the water that used
to be crystal clear now's muddy, and the air's
*****, too. The folk with all the money don't
give a **** about us. We barely knows how
to read or write good. We're poor as dirt.
That's the way it's been forever, and that's the
way it is now, and that's the way it's always
goin' be. 'Course when another war comes
along, we's the ones that gets shot and killed.
There's somethin' awful wrong with the world,
been that way for a long time.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We can be friends with all, beginning with ourselves.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Different kinds of beautiful, black, brown,
red, yellow, deep blue eyes, slanted ones,
drums beating against a mountain side,
flutes floating through jungle vines, soft
prayers murmured on golden steppes,
mosques, cathedrals, churches on a country
hill, puppies, swallows, mountain lion
cubs, long, blonde hair, ***** curls, swirls
of laughter, tears of solace, tender drops
of rain upon her face, breezes blowing
sails homeward, silent moments between
passion and sunrise.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Tell the person on your left she/he is full of grace, then ask her/him to tell the person on her/his left the same thing.

Soon you will be in a circle.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Do I need a mountain peak
and have my visage chiseled
in it? Or do I need a continent
named after me because I
conquered it? Or do I need
a religion I fostered by mysteries
and miracles to have multitudes
follow me? Or perhaps only a
touch of kindness, my hand upon
another's heart, that will reverberate
throughout all endless ages?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

THE AMERICAN FASCIST PARTY

There are two, maybe three, members
of the American Fascist Party (formerly
the Republican Party) who still believe
in democracy, who are not racists, who
believe that all Citizens of the United States
of America still have the sacred right to vote,
who still have compassion for those who
sadly gaze at the Statue of Liberty while
searching through heaps of garbage hoping
to find enough to eat to live another day,
who huddle on frozen concrete in groups
of five or six to survive Febrary's -15 degree
nights. Those I've described are called human
beings. Those I haven't are called hateful bigots,
Neo-Nazis, crazed members of the American
Fascist Party.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

This place to lie as I shall die,
you beside me as I gasp my last breathe,
you've cared for me so much, your tender
touch brought me back so many times,
this sacred spot where your heart's love
like a dove hovered over me, a winged angel
whispering into my soul, you tell me will
no longer know the hurt, the pain, I lie
in your soft arms, I see into your mist-blue eyes
I shall never cry again, only smile knowing
our final kiss and embrace will last forever.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Love is all. All is love.

The smallest thing you can see is an atom. The largest things you can see are billions of galaxies. All the things we can see, however small or large, are illusions. Love, though we cannot see it, is infinite, is reality.

If you know a dialect or language that is different from English, write to your friend who speaks that dialect or language and tell your friend you’re thinking of her/him.

Also, please share with her/him my commentary, PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE, with the hope it can be translated into the dialect or language she/he speaks. As well, ask your friend if she/he could do the same with a friend of theirs, if their situation is the same as yours.

No one can ever receive too much love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

How about 8,000,000,000 Volunteers?
How about cooperating instead of competing?
How about world peace instead of pieces of the world?
How about helping instead of hurting?
How about caring then sharing?
How about not profiting from another's pain?
How about an ARMIE (Alliance to Reunite Mankind in Equality)
  instead of hundred's of killing armies?
How about first making sure you've been loved, which means you are
  able to love yourself, which means you are able to love others?
How about living your lives doing what you love, not doing what
  you think will impress others?
How about all Citizens on Earth have their needs met equally?
How about Earth becoming the PLANET PEACE forever?
How about you becoming one of the 8,000,000,000 Volunteers?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

WHY DO WE LIVE?

Why do we live?
We die, but it is not the end;
it is but a step.
Life is an illusion,
but a necessary one.
The illusion of finite life
is the pathway
to reality, to infinity,
to Cosmos, to enlightenment,
which is PURE LOVE. Paradoxically,
the axiom we follow unconsciously
is know truth by untruth.
The journey to become PURE LOVE
takes innumerable lives,
but when we do become enlightened,
our soul, now PURE LOVE,
need never return to Earth,
but becomes forever one
with reality of PURE LOVE that
has no form, no beginning, no end.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Ungun Earth.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

What if we silent sit in an empty room
and speak without an uttered word?
What if unconscious poems well up
in us, no trying need there be? What
if strands of grass grow and flowers
bloom while azure skies and white
clouds blow by without a sound be
heard? And what if a kiss for one is
a kiss for all and our hearts and souls
are one without us ever knowing?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

What if we silent sit in an empty room
and speak without an uttered word?
What if unconscious poems well up
in us, no trying need there be? What
if strands of grass grow and flowers
bloom while azure skies and white
clouds blow by without a sound be
heard? And what if a kiss for one is
a kiss for all and our hearts and souls
are one without us ever knowing?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS