Ramblin’ Man ..

Just a-Ramblin’, Man ..

Everybody ages and everybody has the choice of how best to manage life passages and phases. Everyone is different, yet most people evolve in life through meeting challenges brought about by stages of transition. Crisis presents opportunity, and opportunity involves change. Change means that some things are gained, whether tangible or emotional, a degree of wisdom or meaningful encounter, and some things or people or dreams vanish in the waves of swirling memory. How one manages the shift in time’s tide, and the choices one makes when confronted by external factors, determines personal character as well as wealth and status, situating one in relation to others and hopefully developing awareness of a healthy balanced way of life.

Most men, it has been suggested in a recent study, carry more regret in their lives than women. According to this study, men in ‘middle-age’ begin to reflect over their lives and question the decisions they’ve made and the place they occupy in the world. They consider the friends they failed to stay in touch with, now lost to time, the lovers who might have been ‘the one’ they let slip from their grasp through foolishness or ego, the career paths not taken to pursue the expectations of family or work obligations and the ventures and prospects passed up for excuses that seem insignificant or even forgotten in retrospect. Men measure accomplishment differently to women.

Many modern men don’t consider themselves successful if they haven’t managed to realize a quantifiable amount of the material wealth the media and culture of celebrity have sold us as being essential to happiness today. Fast sports cars and expensive technological gadgetry, a second home or larger sailboat are the kinds of objects that define prosperity for men in a consumer-orientated society that places value on possessions over experience and family and capital gains over sincerity, happiness and understanding.

People everywhere are encouraged to ‘get a foot on the property ladder’ as if they were climbing the stairway to heaven, or build a portfolio of investments as if a book of numbers will satisfy dreams of triumph over adversity. The sport of conquest is being fought all around and as one moves closer to the centre of the circle the stakes get higher. It’s a game of winner takes all and the champion of men is the one with the most playthings – whether they are casinos or football teams, a catalogue of assets or a share in the future of a Fortune 500 corporation.

'Clothes make the man' we are reminded, and without that bespoke suit, handcrafted platinum watch-face and Italian leather shoes the lesser-tailored man is pushed aside on the pavement of life. The name of the designer is key and the fashion of accessories unlocks jewels in the crown to the new captains of industry and high finance.

But, what happens to the vast majority of contemporary men whose dreams, like the joys of youth dimly remembered through the daily routine of maintaining the modern lifestyle, have been pushed to the back of the mind as though with age comes the inevitable acceptance of an unremarkable existence? Men are often said to go through a ‘mid-life crisis’ when they question the point and purpose of everything they hold dear; typically associated with regression to immature action.

Without a vast accoutrement of accomplishments many men at this age seek solace elsewhere. It may be in a bottle of booze or an extra-marital fling, it might be in retreat to a hobby or in running off to the far-flung corners of the globe in search of enlightenment or, as happens at this time every year, men turn to sport in the form of competitive money-saturated circuses designed to entertain between the numbing regularity of television adverts.

Either way, many 40 to 50-something men spend their days seeking validation and consolation for the few remaining years and hoping for a vindication of the choices made. Athletic events, like gladiatorial competitions, provide brief escape from the overload of daily life, yet very few events televised around the world at incredible expense and with ridiculous fanfare have any point or purpose beyond satiating that need for distraction from the mundane.

Nowhere are similar rewards given to people whose life is spent remunerating caring for a person suffering through illness or injury or the accomplishment of helping another to learn to read or diligently developing the gift of intelligence through academic study. Nor is there discussion of the spiritual illumination that can come from such extreme physical exertion. Thanks to greed in corporate power brokers brawn is winning over brain in the high stakes competition of garnering profit.

Twenty-odd centuries ago there was perhaps a purpose and relevance to running fast and jumping high. Knowing how to throw a javelin further than an opponent, wrestling another man to the ground, vaulting a high wall or lifting a heavy weight were skills that might have had life or death consequences on the battlefield in days of hand-to-hand warfare; today they’re simply irrelevant to daily life. Is it really such an amazing talent to be able to swim faster or jump farther than another person?

Unless desperados are chasing you or you’re out to kill a wily fox with a pack of dogs, knowing how to make a horse jump a fence isn’t very useful.

Physical feats, regardless how interesting as momentary diversion, no longer have meaningful implications for ordinary life and deflect our focus from the consequences of other happenings in the world. Today’s wars aren’t fought in hand-to-hand combat, street battles called uprisings and rioting and looting, revolutions and demonstrations are, but genuine military intervention has become a video game scenario of targets and missiles where subject and object are interchangeable commodities.

I’m not anti-entertainment or sports; I enjoy watching my team play a good game and celebrate when they win. Like many children, people who undertook the challenge of setting new records fascinated me.

What is intrinsically erroneous is athletic accomplishment taking precedence over activities of mind and spirit. While these spectacles draw crowds that make medieval jousts seem quaint, deeds whose importance is of greater significance and challenge to the spirit of humankind have been sidelined to focus on games that resemble a global carnival sideshow run by billionaires (many of whom are the same people who invest in military industries) for the huddled masses.

Additionally, the monetary payoff usually comes from advertising deals to promote products often made by underprivileged, oppressed people, frequently children, in less fortunate places in the world. While wars rage, and new assaults are launched, sponsors and shareholders continue to profit and invest in spreading this phenomenon to untapped markets, places the continuous battles seek to convert to consumer culture.

There really hasn’t been enough discussion about the exclusive rights to the Olympic vendors by McDonald’s, a company not known for providing healthy and substantial food, and other globally exploitative brands of fizzy drinks and shoe wear manufactured by children in backwater villages and disease-infested ghettos where hundreds share toilets in sewage-filled alleys.

The organizers, governments, sporting associations and corporate sponsors apparently thought it better to make truckloads of cash, or at least earn back some of the money spent on stadia that stand idle for long periods and through selling off the logo rather than promoting healthy living and fairness in competition. Perhaps with a greater focus from the higher level of perception involved in sports, the achievement of mind over corporal matter in challenging circumstances, we could lift ourselves from the crisis of confidence the world is suffering in the more serious issues of aggression that await us in the future.

These ‘games’ promote the idea that success through running and jumping and throwing things can bring participants celebrity status where wealth and fame await. Then again, this is the age of cashing in regardless of ethics; style over substance and celebrity over character.

Unlike the late Joseph Campbell, well-known writer and speaker on subjects of myth and religion and a former college athlete, I believe it’s important to delve into the substance of spiritual revelation through the means employed by those before us.

I remember his last series of in-depth interviews with Bill Moyers when he said he had never used any of the substances, either organic or manufactured, used by the shamans of various cultures he investigated and lived with, but instead received his transcendent awareness from an early experience of being on the ‘running team’ at college.

I was and still am a fast runner and reasonably fit for my age. I like to stay healthy and maintain a good balance of physical strength and agility; I swim regularly and walk along the beach and, of course, I love to dance.

Although Mr Campbell was an interesting speaker and well-informed academic on the topics of myth and ancient belief systems, his conclusions were often superficial to the writings he analyzed and lacked insight to the methods and enlightened experiences of his informants.

Eventually contributing to feeding our competitive instincts, this type of thinking eliminates the internal transcendent connection from sporting endeavour to leave only the corporeal; it removes the psyche from the soma to expose only the husk while hiding the kernel.

The consequence of attaching so much importance to physical aptitude is in substituting desire of an idealized image of body for development of character and facility of mind. Previous athletic competitions, whether Roman, Greek or of the Eastern martial arts, had relevance to the lives of those who participated and watched; contemporary sport is dedicated to wealth-seeking rather than purposeful activity.

There is more to genuine spiritual awakening than the light-headedness of physical exertion, which is a secondary and inferior substitute for the actual experience of union, like self-stimulation compared to the joy of making love.

The true mark of spiritual progress is in the life we live, relationships with others and the natural world. This is almost certainly the reason Campbell rationalised and deconstructed the spirituality he encountered in his travels and study; searching for meaning in today's image-saturated world without being open to first-hand experience is a fruitless journey.

Let’s elevate sports once again to the realm of heroes, those who revealed character as well as strength and agility. Modern man, in his search for meaning during this time of transition and growth, is running blind into a dilemma of conflict.

To reach maturity we must search for reconciliation of body and spirit in this age of aggression and instability; healthy activity combined with spiritual progress and mental acuity will provide a model of achievement that can inspire both the youth of today and the seeker to provide balance of perspective in competitive involvement.

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Sunshine bestows life and sweetness grows in love like the fruit of a tree; only through genuine concern for a peaceful existence and social health will decisions be fashioned that benefit humanity and our world.

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The Russians are Coming

The setting sun blasted a triumphal arc of colour into the early evening sky beyond the Toros Mountains. I watched from the terrace as a shimmering halo spread across the western heavens in a dance of time with the rugged peaks and shadowy valleys. The warmth of the sun’s auburn glow barely receded as slowly the mountains devoured the fiery disc. A tiny green lizard scampered into a recess in the rocks below watched by a bored cat sheltering under the shade of a flowering bush. I could sense the movement of the tide as the moon pulled away to the other side of the blue earth, and wistfully wished for a perceptible breeze to cool the sultry night.

I sat back with a refreshing drink and began to think about all the reasons to discover more about the world we live in, and by extension ourselves. I thought about the power of the earth and how we utilise its resources, the minerals locked in rock, the plants and animals, the water, the sun and the wind. I considered how our personal relationship with the world in environmental and cultural terms is multifaceted and complex, and though uniquely individual, shared through tacit agreement and compromise with everyone else on the planet.

How we interact will determine the course of our shared future; a future that depends on creating clean energy solutions to the environmental issues we face.

Without doubt, solutions are needed to address concerns over shifting weather patterns, pollution and the uncompromising energy demands of today’s technologically driven world. We interact with everyone else on the planet through various governments, corporations, associations and institutions, art and culture exchanges and academic conferences as well as media sources, not to mention the simple friendly hello to the neighbours and being decent in dealing with the people we regularly encounter in our daily lives. And then, of course, there is travel.

Tourism is a huge industry in today’s modern global economy. In Turkey alone there are 31.5 million annual visitor arrivals, contributing over 23 billion dollars to the marketplace. Over 20 million tourists arrive in the 'high season' between June and October, with 3 million coming from Germany and 2.7 million of those summer visitors coming from Russia, whereas only 1.7 million arrive from the UK. More than 1.7 million tourists arrive in Antalya in August alone, and most of them are Russian. Beyond the financial benefit opening passage between countries engenders good relations between people of different cultures. So many Russians spend their summer here that the council built a park, complete with the ubiquitous Antalyan fountain and lovely monumental clichés of Russian culture.

The travel industry, and the people who utilise the resources dedicated to this sector, puts its own strain on the energy consumption of the host nation. So many of the ‘eco-tourists’ today anticipate visiting beautiful, maintained, environmentally friendly historic sites and resort areas, yet expect that energy supplies to achieve access to splendid scenery will not unnecessarily damage the environment. To achieve the stated goals of reducing toxic emissions, managing waste and exploring cleaner energy methods we need to become more involved with our community. We will require a concerted effort to consider the effect of our actions on the general welfare of humanity, and knowledge of the systems around us to partake in the awakening consciousness toward healthier and renewed earth.

Turkey's energy consumption has almost doubled in the past decade - from 130 billion kilowatt hours to 240 billion kwh, meaning the speed of its increasing rate of demand for natural gas and electricity is topped only by China. Because of the ever-growing need for more power, Turkey has begun to build nuclear power plants. The construction of the first was to be built in the north in 2010 by the Russian company Rosatom, and the second station, currently under construction, will be near Mersin on the Mediterranean coast by Akkuyu, a subsidiary of Rosatom.

 

Meanwhile, only a month or so ago, Turkey's largest wind farm was opened in the northwestern province of Balikesir. One hundred countries worldwide now produce electricity with wind power. Last year, more wind turbines were erected than ever before, according to statistics released on 16 May 2013 by the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) in Bonn, Germany. According to the organization's World Wind Energy Report 2012, last year wind turbines with a total energy potential of 45 gigawatts were constructed internationally. Worldwide, in 2012, some 60 billion euros ($77 billion) was invested in wind farms and turbines.

China and the USA are the biggest investors in the industry, both adding 13 gigawatts to their capacity. Together they are the top two producers of wind-powered energy while Germany is third, with a mandate to eliminate nuclear power from their nation within the decade.

Yet, Turkey is now starting down this dangerous path. "Renewable resources like wind, sun, and geothermal energy are part of Turkey's basic energy strategy," said Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. “But there is not yet enough investment - Turkish growth is,” he claimed, “quicker than investment in this sector. Turkey must diversify its energy sector. We have to produce double the amount of electricity we are producing now. That's why the planned nuclear power stations are so important." Of course, with the necessary long-term investment solar and wind energy strategies would succeed over nuclear.

In a land blessed with so many days of uninterrupted sunshine, surrounded on three sides by bodies of water, exposed to the wind from these seas, as well as having trapped energy in the form of volcanic seams, one would think that there would be many opportunities to advance production of these primary power sources.

Yet, money talks and deals are made and nations collaborate with corporations to invest in financially rewarding, yet dubiously safe enterprises that will determine the fate of all inhabitants of the earth.

Wind power energy plants have been increasing by up to 40% in some Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine and Poland, as well as in Brazil and Mexico.

However, there are those who oppose wind farms due to the intrusion on their view (such as Donald Trump’s recent foray into golf course resort hotels in Scotland) or because of the noise created by the whirring blades of the wind turbines.

US researchers claim that ‘infranoise’ at 60 decibels is debilitating, with symptoms reported being dizziness and sleeplessness. With the sound of normal conversation notching 60 decibels it’s surprising we ever sleep at all.

At Vensys, a wind turbine manufacturer in southwest Germany, CEO Jürgen Rinck says he's read the studies and believes that the amount of infrasound generated by wind turbines is too low to cause problems for human beings. Germany's Environment Minister, Peter Altmaier, says, “so far, it has only been proven to be damaging to humans at very high levels, around 170 decibels.” In Germany, the authorities have laid out strict regulations for the levels of allowable low frequency noise from industrial machinery. For sounds of 10 Hz for instance, the volume needs to reach 95 decibels before it is deemed problematic.

There are still those who find the sight of a tall, slender windmill on the horizon an eyesore, though no doubt they enjoy having electricity and wouldn’t want a potentially deadly nuclear plant on their doorstep either.

Away from government and business, life is a treat in these summer months, and I’ve begun to be spoilt by good weather, interesting places to visit and friends who keep me involved in various activities, from nights in the old town to days in the sun to student / teacher events.

We frequently go to relax and swim at the site of the ancient Lycian city of Phaselis, now a recreational beach from where one can sail along the coast stopping at inlets and magical bays scattered with the remains of various civilisations. The rocks are mainly limestone and the shoreline is covered in peanut pines and small clusters of laurel, willow, fig, wild rose, tamarisk and spruce and at higher elevations, cedar.

As well as many species of bird and fish there are bears and boars, wolves and wild goats living in the dense wooded areas. The water is blue and warm and inviting as reprieve from the blazing sun, and all only a short distance from the front door of my solar powered house.

Visiting nearby Kurşunlu Waterfall this past Sunday was an especially serene experience. Made a National Park in 1991, the intervention has created an oasis within the city, occasionally busy with tourists yet still offering a tranquil break from the rush of the surrounding metropolis.

This spectacular natural formation conceals a grotto of tunnels behind the falls that offers a cooling respite from the stifling heat, and simply walking through the rocky chasm created by these thunderous falls provides a cool fillip of mist.

Often, at night, we take a picnic of drinks and snacks and walk to the seashore, a blue flag pebble beach where everyone swims till the wee hours; the water is so invigorating in the sweat of darkness. Friends gather and enjoy the evening air, food, drink and good conversation, sharing hope for a more peaceful and ecologically balanced world.

It is possible, and even cheaper in the long run to keep our planet clean and our air free of contaminants. When honest people belief in a better way of life get together anything is possible, even helping to create a future free from the taint of the nuclear monster, the disaster waiting to happen, the terror of meltdown.

Since the Cold War era people in the West have worried about the threat of Russian nuclear power. That fear seemed to subside following the break up of the Soviet Union, though without consideration of loose cannons getting hold of missing weapons grade material. Nations such as Japan (a sad irony) and Russia are assisting in the development of this now unleashed atomic wave, and there is reason to suspect that the spread of this awesome power will continue as long as it is economical yet financially profitable, regardless of the inherent danger.

We must do what we can to spread a positive message of liberation from these corporate energy suppliers, buy into the cleaner and safer alternatives wherever possible and work for solutions to our energy needs. For our children and their children, so that tomorrow everyone can swim with a spirit of concord in the freedom of a clear blue sea, reliant only on the power of mother nature to provide the energy we use.

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What's Happening in Turkey

Turkey: A Demonstration of Tradition

çapulcu : looter. vurguncu : profiteer.

Outside the street’s on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy

And the poets down here don't write nothin’ at all

They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand

But they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland ..

~ Bruce ‘ The Boss’ Springsteen ~

At exactly 9pm on Monday night I was enjoying a pistachio milkshake on the upstairs terrace while a parade complete with banners and trumpets was passing on the next street. Housewives and working mothers started flashing their apartment lights on and off, coming onto their balconies and terraces banging pots with wooden spoons, children were waving flags, motorbikes and cars started tooting their horns and even a couple songs were being sung - this has happened each night this week, lasting for 30 minutes or so, as ordinary people show support for the 'protestors', the çapulcu or ‘looters’ as Prime Minister Erdogan has named them; a title many now flaunt as pseudonym for advocate of truth, the ordinary citizens of Turkey who have decided too much is finally enough.

What began as a peaceful demonstration of environmental concerns over the razing of one of the few remaining small parks in the city of Istanbul, on Taksim Square – a popular shopping and cultural area, has become a national movement against the restrictive policies of the ruling AK party. The demonstrators, on the first couple days mostly students and young people, sat in front of the bulldozers, which stopped after felling a couple of trees. With heavy-handed, and possibly unwarranted intervention by the metropolitan police some of the protestors retaliated in the usual way these things go and soon got out of control, with some frightening running battles in the streets.

The next day the dedicated activists cleaned up the park and continued their public protest. Although the Turkish and international media had been all but silent on this event, social networks came alive through the internet, disseminating information worldwide, prompting the Prime Minister to state that social media was the ‘greatest threat to society’. Soon people in other cities in Turkey, and all around the world, also took to their parks and public squares to show solidarity with the protestors in Istanbul and their ecological noble cause. So, a couple nights ago I thought I’d head into the city centre here in Antalya to see the demonstrations for myself.

What I found was thousands of ordinary people of all ages gathered in a public square in this beautiful Mediterranean coastal city. The atmosphere was celebratory rather than aggressive, and unusually, there wasn't a police officer to be seen in the city. Some of the organisers had the foresight to create wonderful holographic projections of Ataturk and other uniquely Turkish symbols of freedom that were aimed into the dancing waters of the fountain; one of the special qualities of this city is its amazing variety of fountains and water displays and this was an excellent use of public space to excite unity among the growing assembly. People cheered, waved flags embroidered with pictures of Ataturk, sang songs and held placards calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Erdogan.

There's no doubt the AKP have won elections, as did George W Bush, and the apparent economic success of recent years has often been attributed to his policies. However one of the current concerns is that the PM is trying to change the constitution to allow him another 10 years, at a point when he's become somewhat dictatorial in his agenda, making decisions based on pure profit. He’s been accused of 'selling out' to foreign nuclear power companies (Turkey had been non-nuclear until very recently, with the second plant opening near Alanya within a year), property developers, who have littered Istanbul with exclusive apartment complexes and shopping centres, 93 until this one in Taksim goes ahead, and GMOs, a particular worry for many of the agricultural engineers I encounter in Antalya.

Although Erdogan has tried to step onto the world stage, intervening along with Brazil in attempting to secure discussions over nuclear proliferation in Iran, his home policies are contrary to his perceived negotiating skills. On his return from Tunisia last night he gave a speech restating his objectives and claiming to represent all 74 million Turks regardless of creed. As I write this Prime Minister Erdogan has said there won't be anymore police intervention at the park protests until Monday, though what lies beyond that is at this point anyone's guess.

There has already been concern over the government's lack of public consultation on proposed laws such as noise curfews for nightclubs in tourist resorts, a ban on sales of alcohol after 10pm, warnings for ‘public displays of affection’ and his favouring the religious right on issues such as the educational curriculum – with the far reaching implications of those policies, all politically contrary to the secular wisdom of the heralded founder of the modern state Kemal Ataturk.

This family's shirts, in reference to Erdogan's denunciation of the protestors as çapulcu or looters, read in English as: 'father looter' 'mother looter' 'young looter' and 'mini looter'.

This current standoff, and there have been a couple of coups in Turkey over the past 20 or 30 years, has particular implications for women. There have recently been regulations against access to ‘the morning after pill’ and there is talk of outlawing the right to abortion. The PM has come out recently saying women should stay at home and ‘have three babies’. It is well known that his own wife wears the long buttoned coat and full head covering of the strict sect of Islam that is gaining influence here, though whether because others agree with his purported religious stance or they are raking in the cash by aligning themselves with his policies is debatable – or, it is open to debate in a society with free speech; as many of the journalists who have questioned him on this are now languishing in prison without trial.

Most women here don't wear a headscarf or other religious covering. 'Turkish' women are generally opposed to the headscarf and see the increasing popularity of wearing the hijab amongst the elite (wealthy women who wear a headscarf and paradoxically wear designer clothes, shoes, jewellery and watches, wear make-up and drive in the back of BMW 4x4s) as a threat to their own civil liberty with many I've spoken to expressing concern over the closeness the AKP has with Iran.

Most Turkish women don’t want to be told to cover their hair, they want choice over their own bodies, and they’ve called on history to defend their rights; the historical legend that is the founder of the modern state, Kemal Ataturk whose name is emblazoned on the rear window or bumper of every other car and whose influence is so prevalent his picture, like George Washington, hangs in every classroom.

Ataturk was a nationalist, and he was responsible for things that still scar the relationship between Turks and some other ethnic groups, such as the Kurds and Armenians. There is still animosity and conflict due to bombings and killings on either side of the divide. On a day-to-day basis most Kurds and Turks get on fine, though they generally don’t mingle socially. Kurdish people tend to have the lowest paid jobs and expectations for advancement and feel anger over being denied the right to use their own language in schools and other public institutions. Many Kurdish women wear scarves, but they aren’t the ones worrying the average ‘Turkish’ woman, that fear comes from the power of the ‘elite’ wealthy designer headscarf-wearing Islamists who support the current government’s ambitions.

Ataturk was nationalist at a time of rising state conflict throughout Europe and it was a tactic he employed to secure this country’s position in the modern world; he used his version of nationalism to help the newly emerging Turkey develop an identity that was uniquely modern and secular and equality-driven in an age before women in England and America had the vote. He stood for the youth and a better future for men and women, he dressed in Western suits, banning the headscarf as outmoded, and he liked a drink, much to the displeasure of the current regime.

 

Erdogan recently said some of the laws on the books were written ‘by alcoholics’ and anyone who drank alcohol was ‘alcoholic’. So much for his respect for the founder of this nation, an error of judgement along with sending tear gas into the crowds in Gezi Park, that may come back to haunt him.

All around the world we’ve been seeing the rise of similarly despotic conservative fundamentalists who would reshape society in their stone-age image of divided gender roles and superstitious beliefs curiously mixed with resource exploitation and capitalist consumption.

In Turkey, people from almost every walk of life have joined together to remind the government they are servants of the people, not only the influential far-right Islamists. I’ve seen and spoken to teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists, students and secretaries who marched into the streets to voice their disapproval and demand the right to be heard; these are not ‘looters’ and this is NOT a riot, these are professionals and hard-working ordinary citizens who want the government to recognise their primary right to liberty and self determination.

Turkey is a vast state and, although Ataturk united the nation under one flag and language, regional differences, as in any large region, are evident when travelling around the country. Urban, metropolitan centres are obviously more cosmopolitan and teeming with contemporary lifestyles that people in Western nations would recognise as their own, whereas village life is still more 'traditional' - and the Turkish respect tradition.

However, the 'tradition' those on the front lines of the park gatherings are drawing on is that of the greatly admired and revered Ataturk, who was secular and modern in his views, with a far-reaching vision, opening avenues of trade to the West, and releasing people from the yoke of religion, rather than the analogy of the Ottoman hierarchical structure that the current government seems to favour.

Most people in Turkey that I've spoken to want a forward-thinking, secular government, equality in living standards, a life free from interference and an open and tolerant society with economic opportunity for all .. oh, and a nice park to gather in on sunny summer days.

People have the power
The power to dream / to rule
To wrestle the world from fools
It's decreed the people rule, Listen
I believe everything we dream
Can come to pass through our union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the earth's revolution
We have the power
People have the power ...
~ Patti Smith ~

 

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