Did We Say Unity Through Diversity?!

YES WE DID!  Unity through diversity is the founding principal of the Knights of Creativity, Spirit and Ale.  It's also the founding principal of the UNITED States of America.  

What is happening to this great nation of ours???!!!  I know...the Silent Majority has lost it's tongue (we haven't posted in almost 3 years!)...while the crazy book ends of society continue to squeeze rational thought out of the library!

We are a nation of immigrants...worthless minions...who gathered on these shores to build a nation on ideals...not on wealth or family privileges...and certainly not on exclusion.  Sure, we've screwed up...like abusing the true Native Americans...bringing Africans as slaves...persecuting the next wave of immigrants like the Irish, the Poles, the....BUT...through our Diversity we have woven a strong and vibrant society that is the envy of the world.  Well, it use to be before Trump.  Speaking of Trump...what the hell happened to Reagan's Republican Party???!!! 

We went from Tear Down That Wall to Build That Wall in only three generations.  Of course when the Reagan Republicans held the White House they embraced the friendship of the opposing party and actually listened to input from Democrats, like Tip O'Neill. 

Tip: "Well Ronnie, let's make a deal."  Ronald:  "Well Tip, only if we do it over a couple of beers my friend!"  Trump's White House is like walking into Hitler's Bunker with the Russians outside the door in 1945!  Look at the history of Walls:  

The Great Wall of China, which will still to this day dwarf Trump's Wall, and was built to keep out the Mongols.  DIDN'T WORK!

Hadrian's Wall, built by the Romans in Northern England to keep out the Celts.  DIDN'T WORK!

The Berlin Wall, built by the Communist to actually keep people in.  DIDN'T WORK!

TRUMP'S WALL:  Tired of the history lesson, if you still know how to read...WON'T WORK!

No, what is needed now more than ever is the courage to speak up and tell the truth.  The courage to call things as they really are.  Like Terrorism for example.  The Middle East is all about oil and money, held hostage by the greedy and self-righteous fundamentally religious on both sides.  While true terrorism continues to happen in our Continent with mass shootings, gang wars, etc.

What is the difference between a Jihadi and a Mexican Gangster?  The Jihadi blows himself up along with you...the Gangster kills you, cuts you up and cooks you on the stove.  

A wall is not the answer.  Imagine if we diverted our military efforts to assist the Mexicans in bringing their country back to sanity, while at the same time healing our own wounds.  Use money for a wall to educate and advance a unified American Continent...now that's strength.  Are we brave enough...and smart enough for this challenge?  I am!

Cheers!
Sir Hook "the Diverse" of Warrick

A Civilized Dog

We get lost in a maze of technology, advanced medicine, diets, fads, hobbies, sports, movies...which desensitizes us to our true nature.  Wake up!  We all are just Civilized Dogs...Animals...on the prowl who take no prisoners.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that civilized behavior is bad, but sometimes it can suppress and depress our true selves.  Nothing expresses this inner conflict better than the song "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails.  Please click on the video below to listen to the song and read the lyrics before you move on, thank you.

I was recently at the gentleman's club...aka...the Cigar shop, where mostly men gather to smoke stogies, watch sports and pontificate about stories of the day.  Then, like a train crashing into a mountain, SHE WALKS IN.  

Now granted, in a cigar shop any half-way attractive woman stands out like a perfectly grilled fillet mignon on the plate of a starving beggar; however, the instant change from male banter to silently sizing up in our cave man brains the mating potential of this female is palatable.  Yep, I cannot tell a lie...as the song says, "I want to fuck you like an animal."

We as men have spent millennium in suppressing our most basic instinct...that being to spread our seed, our territory, our influence...to become the Alpha Male.  When this base instinct kicks into full gear and we get out of our own way...truly scaring stuff will happen.  Thus, civilized rules of engagement were developed by church and state to starve this beast within, which has now become our default program.  That is what kept five men in a cigar shop from tearing each other apart to win the female.  We simply reengaged in watching the football game, smoking and laughing at the same jokes we've heard a thousand times over and over again.

After all, the very tenant of our Knightly Band..."Unity Through Diversity"...frowns upon the enhancement of one race, one religion, one philosophy, one man or woman to rule over all.  Yet, that primitive urge wells up in our DNA until we are ready to explode.  And so we continue to allow church and state to dictate how and why we should behave as we journey through our day.

The irony, we want to express our same desires in either beast mode or civilized mode.  The biggest desire of human kind is to find a higher power, to embrace and understand the mysterious, to know, and as the song says, "Get Closer to God".  I'm  one who can feel that way through a sexual act...but the one thing that satisfies my "cave man" the most is to create and get lost in making and listening to music.  In the privacy of my "man cave", or a late night on the deck listening through headphones as I howl at the moon, playing guitar at church, or strutting my stuff live on stage...I let the ANIMAL EMERGE!

It's a cathartic experience...and better yet it keeps me sane in a ever changing and maddening world.  We can't go back, but we can move forward.  As part of embracing Unity Through Diversity, I encourage all Knights and Ladies to enable the diversity within your heart, mind and soul.  Release the animal within, while at the same time remembering the civilized Knight you are.  Most importantly....BE TRUE TO YOURSELF...WHICH WILL ALWAYS BRING YOU CLOSER TO GOD.

Cheers!
Sir Hook the Civilized Dog of Warrick

Unity Through Diversity...Explained Once Again!

As those who have followed us over the years know, The Knights of Creativity Spirit & Ale was founded on the principle of UNITY THROUGH DIVERSITY!  There have been several excellent posts written about this throughout the years, which you can read by clicking the links below:

http://knightscsa.blogspot.com/2009/02/unity-through-diversity-lesson-for.html

http://knightscsa.blogspot.com/2008/09/no-more-holy-wars.html

http://knightscsa.blogspot.com/2010/10/unity-through-diversity-time-to-tug.html

http://knightscsa.blogspot.com/2015/03/kiss-meim-human.html

However, with the USA election of 2016, it is once again necessary...nay, obligatory...for the KCSA to speak up about why Unity Through Diversity is essential to progress.  Donald Trump is being hailed by the extreme right and political experts as nothing we've ever seen before.  WRONG!

Trump and his narrow belief system is nothing new at all...in fact, it's just another in a long line of American soar spots that have once again risen to the surface like the virus it is.  American Indians blocked our way to expansion, so they were vilified and swept away.  Italian and Irish immigrants were persecuted and murdered for stealing our jobs in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Mexican Americans have often been the target of hatred since Texas declared independence from them and the resulting wars that followed.  German Americans were forced to drop their language, newspapers and traditions during WWI and WWII.  Japanese Americans were rounded up in camps during WWII, not unlike the German concentration camps, minus the gas and fire chambers, while those same Japanese Americans young enough to fight were sent to fight Germans and became the most decorated unit during the war.  Supposed communists were black listed by the fear and hatred of Senator McCarthy in the 50's.  Now the fear and hatred of Muslims, Blacks, Progressives and basically any Immigrant is trying to permeate our society once again with the help of the likes of Trump.

Walls don't work!  Just ask the Romans in Britain or the Chinese.  Instead of erecting walls we should be embracing diversity!  Fear is the fuel that drives hatred on its destructive course.  Without fear, ISIS will cease to exist.  Trump needs ISIS and FEAR to fuel his hate engine.  We need the strength and grace to embrace diversity.  As my Grandmother Baker told me, "You have to look your fear in the face and make it yours."  Or as FDR so famously stated, "We have nothing to fear except fear itself!"

Besides, if we didn't embrace diversity we wouldn't have such wonderful mixing of cultures that result in wonders like Tex-Mex and Creole food.  The same people who want to build a wall don't have a problem downing chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.

I have become a better person by embracing diversity in my life.  I'm a registered Republican, who is very liberal and often votes Democrat.  I'm also a member of the NRA, even though I despise how they corrupt our political system.  I love learning about new foods, drinks, cultures and I love to travel.  I was raised Southern Baptist but I'm now a practicing Roman Catholic, though in all honesty I much prefer my Cherokee belief system with a nice glass of Buddhism and a Zen salad.

So, join me brave knights and ladies as we once again saddle up to do battle with the dark side of humanity.  UNITY THROUGH DIVERSITY!  NO FEAR!  HAVE THE GRACE TO EMBRACE!

Sir Hook the Diverse of Warrick

I Pulled A Rabbit Out Of A Saviors Crown Of Thorns

As a child I looked forward to getting that Easter Basket full of candy.  Nothing better than a gift, especially candy, when you're a child.  All that candy gave me the energy to survive having to dress "special" for church, set through an extra long worship service, and eat with family members you might only see once a year, often ending in arguments on religious teachings.

Children across the globe have no choice but to absorb the culture and teachings pounded into them.  They absorb them like a sponge.  The Christian vs. Muslim conflict we know today is the result of that.  So as a child, I believed in the Easter Bunny and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with that sublime blind faith on the same day.  It was magic!  I pulled a rabbit out of a saviors crown of thorns.

As my rebellious teen years set in...and not one to shy away from controversy, I began to question everything I was taught about religion.  Questioning is the first order of learning.  A gift that keeps on giving, whether that would be more knowledge, a black eye...or more than likely both.  By the end of my teens I didn't believe in the Easter Bunny or cared much for the strict religion taught at my church.

My college years began to open doors to a freedom of thought I never experienced before. Different ideas, different religions, different races and cultures, far removed from that small Southern Illinois community that formed me as a child. I once again opened up my mind and soaked in all that knowledge like a sponge. Then came the mother of all classes to fulfill my history minor...the History of World Religions.

I was floored to learn the similarities between ancient (which many call Pagan) and modern religions, the plundering of ideas and theologies from one to the other.  I began to see religion as both totally useless and the fulfillment of human desire since the beginning of time.  I began to see the common thread that united them all.  I began to see how religion is used to control others, or as a way to free the seeker on his spiritual journey through life. I became like a Pulsar, bouncing from one extreme to the other...almost ready to explode as I assimilated the facts learned in the class with the ideology I was taught during my first 18 years on the planet. That began a period where I made reason over faith my religion.  Factual knowledge, based on historical evidence.

Here are just a few facts about pulling a rabbit out of a saviors crown of thorns:

1. All major religious celebrations are rooted in the astronomical calendar, and have been borrowed and modified for literally thousands of years be succeeding civilizations.
2. Zoroastrianism, teaching "One God" of the ancient Babylonians, and the battle between good and evil, became the basis of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic theologies that we know today.
3. In 325AD the Council of Nicaea of the Roman Catholic church, incorporating an already established Pagan spring festival calendar, established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.  From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.  Therefore, Easter is never on the same date, or even month from year to year.
4. The story of Easter is as much rooted in paganism as it is in Christianity. The holiday owes its name to Eostra, the Germanic goddess of spring and fertility.  The egg and the rabbit symbolized the coming of new life and fertility. 
5.  An Easter Bunny character first hopped up in the 8th century. Legends featuring bunny imagery associated to Easter continued to be written down in 1500s Germany and the first story about a rabbit hiding eggs in a garden was published in 1680. As many Southwestern German immigrants settled in America, the Easter Bunny lived on in Pennsylvania Dutch tales of the Bunny as the "Oschter Haws," where Germantown children were gifted with eggs in their Easter bonnets that, today, are replaced by Easter baskets filled with candy and toys. 
6. Egg decorating is at least a 60,000 year old activity, practiced by the likes of Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Kalahari Bushmen, who engraved ostrich eggs. Before giving colored eggs found its way into the modern Christian tradition, early Mesopotamian Christians dyed eggs red to symbolize the blood shed by Christ during his crucifixion.

I realize now that diversity of ideas and theologies are indeed united in our raw human need: 

• To express what we cannot comprehend
• To give thanks for what we have been given to survive on this planet
• To join together as a community with a common cause.  

This day after Easter I am reminded of my college history professor saying, "It's a terrible thing to be young and stupid." I'm also reminded of what my priest said at Mass yesterday, "Easter is not about focusing on a life after death or the miracle of the cross, it's about giving us hope to focus on living life to it's fullest right now."

I realize that reason and faith can coexist, that humanity and divinity are one, that we are all united through our diversity.

I am resurrected every day...every moment...every opportunity to connect and engage the world around me.  I am unified with all the living souls who have lived before, during, and after my brief existence here.  I smile as I see children grabbing their Easter Baskets and begin their journey of discovery just I did those many years ago.

Sir Hook "The Divine in Progress" of Warrick

Kiss Me...I'm Human!

Obviously, today is Saint Patrick's Day.  A day when everyone wishes to be Irish.  It's easy, just put on some green, where a leprechaun hat, and drink till you sound like one.

Funny, I remember as a kid, being raised in a non-alcohol - WASP home, the deep desire to know what it would be like to be Irish.  I ended up marrying a second generation New York Irish lass, who showed me the ins and outs, as well as the ups and downs, of being raised in an Irish Catholic home.

Then came my need to find roots in my family ancestral records.  I even did a DNA test, and low and behold what did I discover?  I'm freakin' Irish!  Not much, mind ya, but enough to wear the "kiss me pin" without shame, or being named Seamus.

Here's how the story goes (without getting into which sea creature or monkey I came from, but as far as human records can go):

My oldest blood roots are Roman, Scandinavian, Germanic, and Cherokee.  The Romans married into the Germans and became Franks...the Germans and the Britons married becoming Anglo/Saxon...the Vikings settled in Scotland and Ireland blending with the locals to become Scots and Irish...the Vikings at the same time mingled with the Franks and became Normans...the Normans marry the Anglo/Saxons and become English.  The Cherokee remained untouched.

Now at this point I have Scottish and English family members fighting each other, Irish and English ancestors fighting each other...and Cherokee family members waiting for a fight, except for the many fights they had over centuries with other Indian Tribes (ain't war grand?!).

Eventually, my Irish ancestors would align with England and become protestant, my Scottish and English ancestors would help to form the United Kingdom, my English ancestors moved to Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, some married into the Cherokee, some would fight for England, and some for the Colonies during the Revolution.  Eventually, they all became members of the United States of America.

See the pattern...comprehend the common word?  UNITED!

My family story is probably similar to a lot of peoples stories.  We stand against immigration, being immigrants ourselves.  We loath peoples religions and different beliefs, not aware our ancestors once shared those same thoughts we hate today.  We call ourselves American...but really we're just mutts!  Same with the English, the French, the German's...and so the human story rolls...we're all just a messy pile of humanity.

Now is the time to unite.  Unity through Diversity!  It's what made our species strong, and will continue to do so.  We can't afford to be inbred idiot's.  We are meant to expand, explore and explain why Unity through Diversity is the final solution.

So today I raise a glass and proudly exclaim, "KISS ME...I'M HUMAN!"

Cheers,

Sir Hook "the Celtic Scot/Irish, British Viking, Cherokee Emperor" of Warrick

And Now For Something Completely Different!

Official KCSA Web Site

It's crazy how when you have something good going and you ignore it, it simply slips away.  This can be said for business, relationships, families, etc.  It certainly can be said for the Knights and Ladies of our Realm...specifically me, Sir Hook of Warrick "Founding Father".

Realizing that it has been since 2013 since we have made our last post, and 2007 since we shifted from being the Knights of Moleskine Spirit and Ale to the Knights of Creation Spirit and Ale to our newer blog layout, I thought it time for this warrior monk and errant knight to get off his royal arse and do something about it.

Above you will see the fruits of that labor, a labor of love and devotion to our noble cause.  It seems the longer the world spins out of control a voice of reason from the desert is needed.  A voice that knows no boundaries to imagination, nor recognizes any limitations to the human spirit.  A voice that screams, "Unity through Diversity"!  A person of merit who personifies the attributes of "Think...Drink...Create...and BE MERRY...damn it!"

Having decided that using the term creation instead of creativity could violate one of our core principals, we have now become the Knights of Creativity Spirit and Ale.  Better yet, now is the time to unite through our diverse backgrounds and geographic locations to become a Nation of Knights...KnightsNation!

Thus, we have "hooked" (no pun, ok, pun intended) our blogs into one, and have made it part of the KnightsNation web site.  Hell, we even have a web store to buy our logo goods.  That site is what you see a picture of above, as well as the link to it for you to visit.

As you will see, we plan on being able to feature our membership's work and to continue to blog regularly.  The web site is also mobile friendly and we will post our blogs on our new Facebook page as well.  Here is that link.  (Please like our Facebook Page)

So, Knights and Ladies, to horse...to war...for the KCSA nation!

Cheers!
Sir Hook "the not so idle anymore" of Warrick

Seven Score and Seven Years Ago: The Gettysburg Address, Lesson for A Nation in Peril

On this day Seven Score and Seven Years Ago, our Forefather, Abraham Lincoln, delivered one of the most important speeches by an American President in our entire history.


The heavy lessons in this brief and eloquent speech still ring true today.  Perhaps we should endeavor to embrace Unity through Diversity as those who heard this speech in person where challenged to do.  There's no South, North, Tea Party, Palin, Obama, Liberal, Conservative...there's only the common pursuit of happiness and liberty.

Therefore, I challenge you as you read and meditate on this living document, where do you stand today?

“

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

”

Unity Through Diversity: Time to Tug from the Same Side of the Rope!

I don't know about you, but I can't wait until the U.S. elections are over in just a few weeks time.  The mind numbing display of racism, bigotry and misplaced ideology has me at the end of my rope.

Like a cosmic "tug of war", it's time for all of us to realize the beauty and inherent power in pulling together from the same side of the rope...to rediscover and embrace one of the Knights of Creation Spirit and Ale's most sacred and inspiring ideals...Unity Through Diversity.

There is no power in like minds herding together to protect their small territory, like lemmings heading to their demise.  Like a well made sword, which is twisted together from different metals to form a stronger edge, our society's only hope for survival is to be inclusive, not exclusive.

Last night I couldn't hold my tongue anymore while a group of smug racist middle aged right wingers continued to call President Obama a "socialist".  I finally turned and said, "I respect your right to have an opinion, but I do not support your obvious distortion of the truth.  President Obama is not a socialist."  I proceeded to ask them if they believed in Jesus Christ, which of course I knew they would say yes.  I then told them, "Jesus Christ is a socialist, go back and read your Bible on his teachings and then decide how you can have your religious beliefs and political views be so different from each other."

A friend of mine from the U.K. said to me not too long ago, "It's a shame to see that the Civil War is still not over in the States!"  He's correct...white middle class America feels threatened by a black President.  The term "Socialist" has simply replaced the racist term "Nigger" in our national dialog.

The fact is, we have always been a nation of blended race, religion and nationalities...that is what melded the strong sword of Amercia.  It's time to put aside what makes us different to embrace what will make us better!  It's time to keep walking forward and to stop looking backward.  It's time to man up America!

Sir Hook the Diverse of Warrick