This is the INDEX page

This is an introductory page for a work educational and political. Please see the link below to visit my "issues" page. Or click here: VoteForSpike

As of 7 January, 2013 there's been no change for the better in America by my estimation since election day 2012.

I do not want this job but, like the clean-up committee, I am willing to do it and do it well.

I try, and fail surely, to remember that I have walked only in my shoes, never anybody else's, never yours. As such I try to not question motives but judge actions as is necessary. There can be various motives for an action and knowing what is in another's heart is difficult, maybe impossible. This is why we judge on fruit. By the fruit of actions we must judge. And, always, we cannot know what ONE MEANS, only what ONE SAYS, so I try always to say what I mean and mean what I say.

You will almost certainly find something here that you like and something that you don't. Thank you for stopping by.

You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe -- John Adam, Second President

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. --Thomas Jefferson

If you want to be free and remain free, you're going to have to always seek freedom and learn from history by reading. If you want to be free you must read. --Mike

From here you can proceed to a political and educational work- a campaign website- at which I will attempt to give you evidence that voting for me, instead of reflexively voting for a Republican or Democrat, is a good idea; it's even a good idea regardless your inclinations about the parties Republican and Democrat. I am asking for you to place for me a write-in vote, as I do not belong to a political party and I will not accept contributions from anybody. If you send me to Madison to represent you in the Senate I will owe nobody but you, the voters, and will work in the interest of the people of Wisconsin in keeping with the constitutions of the United States of America and of Wisconsin.

I will owe no contributors of big money, I will owe no special interests, I will owe only YOU.

As this webpage is a political and educational work I expect to be given much consideration in the use of material not my own work, even if copyrighted. I intend to use the written works of others, as you will find on this page, and possibly short snippets of movies and/or documentaries. As these works are employed in an attempt to win elective office and educate others for a short period of time and not used for commercial purposes, I expect this site to remain up and available, not shut down or even suspended for copyright infringement.

Thank you for coming to my website, thank you for considering casting a vote for me...which, all things considered, is a vote for you.

While I may not subscribe to all of the concepts and lessons that might be found in the works below, I find that they all contain important insights and are valuable to some extent so, please, in the interest of putting yourself in a proper frame of mind as I ask for your vote, enjoy them before you proceed to my campaign site by clicking: Take me to the ISSUES page On Twitter: @VoteForSpike (Have not much used Twitter.)

written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s --
Not "Found in Old St. Paul's Church"! -- see below

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Please observe that none of these men made a claim to the whole truth when they made their various observations that did not agree with each other. No, none of their observations were in agreement, but neither did they conflict with each other. By analogy, let us consider a house of 1,000 square feet, painted gray on the outside with an attached garage. If several people were to describe this house would any of them be wrong for merely describing only one aspect of it?

Well what of another who says that the house is small? Nope, gray and small do not conflict.

If three different people made these three different observations not a one of them can be said to be wrong.

It's quite easy to see, of course that the man who said the house is gray has not disagreed with those who spoke of the size of the house and so he cannot be judged to be wrong by their observations and, in fact, we know that he is correct, the house is gray.

But surely the man who says the house is large IS IN DISAGREEMENT with the man who says the house is small, right? Yes, they do disagree but only on a matter of opinion. Opinions are not statements of fact and are not subject to claims of veracity in the way a statement of fact is. One might find the White House to be small, especially if he was just visiting one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Museum or the Capitol Building. Another, in comparing the White House to his own home, might find it to be quite large. Neither is wrong, though they disagree. And, while I do hesitate to disagree with the writer of this work, I find in this manner that none of the blind men in the poem is actually in the wrong. They don't agree but neither do they disagree so we have no direct evidence of an error on the part of any one of them. Also, as they are all expressing only an opinion, "very LIKE," and I think, for what it is worth, that the similes they employ all work very well, they cannot be said to be wrong. Someone falling against the side of the elephant might well describe it as "like a wall," or "like a rock," or like some other thing, but opinions are perfectly valid and not subject to our declaration of being in error except that they directly contradict (a) fact(s). If someone says that in their opinion that the gray house is NOT gray, their opinion can be said to be invalid or wrong.


My campaign ad is above. Please write in "Mike Smith" in Wisconsin's 28th Senate District. Thank you.	An introduction to who I am, why I am willing to be on the Clean-Up Committee and why I think you should vote for me.	Decent people in each, a video above explaining the parties Republican and Democrat: It's simpler than it might seem at first- DO NOT BLINK.
Show me Wisconsin's 28th Senate District
Want to cast a protest vote? In addition to the 28th Senate district, I live in the 82nd Assembly district (currently held by Jeff Stone) and the 1st Congressional district (gerry-mandered to be held into perpetuity by Paul Ryan). They are both very safe in their districts. If you'd like to cast a vote against the status quo, feel free to write me in.	Please show me the 82nd Assembly District.	Please show me Wisconsin's 1st Congressional district.

Trees by Joyce Kilmer	If by Rudyard Kipling	Desiderata by Max Ehrmann
First they came for... by Pastor Martin Niemoller	The Gods of the Copybook Headings	The Blind Men and the Elephant (With Video)