It's been quite a while since children of Abraham have held one, as Moses did tell them to do. A lot of Americans do claim to be Abe's children, whether they are Christian, Jewish or Muslim. I do know that the Jewish people were told to have one, not only every 50 years, but also every 7 years, for forgiveness of debts and letting slaves free. It might not be possible to follow the letter of the law on all said about a Year of Jubilee. But we could fulfill its purpose, or its intent, which sure looks to me to be about purifying ourselves. There are plenty of things Society needs to be purged of: poverty, war and intolerance are high on my list.
How far we could practically go with a Year of Jubilee? Probably not as far as I dream of, which is forgiveness of everything, and especially removing the stumbling blocks from the top which causes a lot of the trash. As I dream about Arlo Guthrie's Satellite song of telling the prisoners soon they will be free; that would surely first take improving conditions inside jails, so as to help correct and rehabilitate the violent. But freeing all non-violent offenders is looking long overdue to me. Restoring Society to a less pressured life could go a long ways towards reducing crime, by lightening the load on down on their luck people. Alan Jackson, That Would Be Alright, "If everybody everywhere had a lighter load to bare and a little bigger piece of the pie, we would be living us a pretty good life and that would be alright."
What Howard Zinn sort of said about the prisons being full with petty thieves, while the grand thieves live in luxury explains by itself that the stumbling blocks (most of them) causing the little ones to do crap they wouldn't do in a fairer society, come mainly from the top down. I do strongly believe that there are far too many economic pressures that have a large part in causing lots of the crap that none of us like. Though for sure, the stumbling blocks, who the Lamb said, "Woe from whom the stumbling blocks come from, causing the little ones to stumble," come from more than just the economics of these complicated times.
Mark Twain saw this back in his day, "The lack of money is the root of all evil." In ancient times Solomon said, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Many can see today that greed is keeping money out of the hands of the people who need it most. My economics come from my wiring days in the IBEW where it was said, "Coins are round to go around." That's about what Solomon also said, "Money is the answer to everything." (Personally for a little joke, wonder why the word con is in economy.)
But the main idea behind this Article is to lighten everyone's load. Here is an OEN Article of solutions some said could unite the Tea Party with OWS: get out of the fiat monetary system, public banks such as North Dakota, worker owned companies modeled after Mondragon of the Basque in Spain, and letting farmers grow hemp as a renewable source of paper, plastics, textiles and among other things, the bio-fuel we can produce from it. http://www.opednews.com/articles/OWS-is-going-to-be-what-th-by-Michael-Dewey-120102-254.html
This Satellite song of Arlo's below should explain much about what a year of Jubilee would be about. It's off of his Someday album of the 80s: Goes a bit like this, "Isn't it wonderful to see a day that breaks the rules. Today we tell the hungry soon you will be fed. Today we tell the sick ones soon you will be well. Today we tell the prisoners soon you will be free. The whole world is dancing around like a universe of fools, let's all just take the day off and have some fun while we watch the children play."
My dream
is to fulfill Isaiah 23:17-18 and 24:21-24 where the kings of the earth are
thrown in jail and the profits of this Beautiful Planet are used for food and
fine clothing for those who need it. Then we can have that big party of
Isaiah 25, where we Celebrate a few Thanks Giving Diners a week of being passed
over the insanity of our times.. That will be when the covering will be
removed from all people's eyes, and veil will be lifted from all Nation's eyes,
and they understand what they have never heard before. That understanding part has to be what is meant at the end of
Isaiah 52.
I am no Scholar and have heard some say that Isaiah 23:17-18 was fulfilled back then, when the profits of Tyre would not be stored are hoarded up, but used for the fine cloths for the righteous. It's just that looking around at these 21st century times, hear that there are a lot of profits that the rich are sitting on, while needed food stamps and unemployment are being cut in America. So as is said from somewhere, "From whom much has been given much will be required."
Of course we should hope to not lock up the kings in charge. It's just that if they were going to create American jobs with all the tax cuts and subsidies that they have gotten lately, that they would have done it by now. So the option of locking them up must stay on the table, so as to put the fear of god into them. (Yes I spell it with a small g for think the Church and State have turned into that Authoritarian IMAGE created of him.) Doubt very many people would complain if we had their Security Guards lock them up in their homes for as long as it will take the people to come together on issues that will restore the American dream. There are solutions to getting workers an honest day's pay for an honest day of work, which really is all that people need.
M any have been saying for years, US Foreign Policy has to turn around and focus at home. Older IBEW Brothers way back in the 80s were telling me (Days of my 20s when I was earning a good living.) DC was making a mistake of spending too much overseas. Then we will be showing many examples of how things are done right. We will also learn some things from other Countries, such as not-for-profit health care. I believe being an example of how things are done right (Which won't come from a barrel of a gun.) is America's calling.
When we fulfill our US calling of being an example of how things are done right, is when the veil will be lifted from all Nations eyes, and they understand what they have never heard before, as is written in Isaiah 52:15, "Thus he will sprinkle many Nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of him. For what had not been told them they will see. And what they had not heard they will understand." As the Nations awake, and stop their own oppression, we then start making up for our transgressions overseas by exporting Thanks Giving Dinners all over the world.
A few New Year Eve ago this FB friend Dorothy Lemus touched my heart with this: -~" May I suggest for the new year avoiding all titles such as liberals, rep, demo, progressives, races, color, educational idiots, etc. and come to a realistic confederation of humanistic individuals understanding and taking over this country and changing it to a better, healthier, educated, spiritual, hardworking, united place to breath love and light in." If more people and the media would follow that advice, we would be long on our ways towards a more civil, tolerant Society. Dorothy words are pretty close to what the last advice given to John in Revelations 22:10-11, where it basically says let it be and live and let die. About the only thing that I can't be tolerant of is intolerance.
Though the Bible is mentioned a lot here, that does not make me a very religious person. Where I'm really coming from is about what Steve Miller sang about back in the 70s about all of us having been working so hard that we have got to get down to the swing-town! And as the Space Cowboy also sang in Serenade, "Wake up wake up, can't you see that we are lost in space and the time is our own."
