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Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D.

~ Communal Conversations for the Promotion of Active Critical Engagement

Patrick S. De Walt, M.B.A., Ph.D.

Tag Archives: Politics

In Search of Leadership

06 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry

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Art, Culture, free form, Freewrite, Inequity, injustice, interpretive expression, leadership, Performance, poetry, Politics, power, Race, social awareness, social critique, society, Supreme Court

Imbalanced lives and circumstances
Adversarial communications based on fallacy laden rhetoric
To ridicule
To evade
To incense
To ostracize
A collectivized canon
Too familiar
Too historical
Too avoided
Are those words that current actions are challenging most to hear and discuss
Colin nor Jim nor Muhammad nor all of the others in sports should be viewed through a planter’s lens
As physical labor incapable of formulating coherent thoughts and meaningful actions
Yet, the lens that has framed how a nation sees one another remains avoided like the plague.
All of this frames the context for what is most needed and missing at present
In search of leadership
Cannot start from a position of myopia
Skewed by self-interest at the expense of common decency and compassion
In search of leadership
Cannot start with fragmented politics nor oligarchical capitalism
Unfortunately, our search for leadership ended with 44 and hopefully will be reinstated by 46…

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Bipolar Nation

18 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry

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Art, Community, Culture, Freewrite, healing, History, humanity, law, Performance, poetry, police state, Politics, self, social awareness, social critique, social justice, Social norms, society, Streams of consciousness, struggle

Civil unrest
Civil disobedience
Calls for subordination
Calls for enforcement of divisive ideologies of othering
Lives in turmoil as fear blankets them
ICE agents knocking on doors
Rounding up breathing, living, loving beings as if they were cattle being led to slaughter
Mothers and fathers separated from their children
Families in disarray as if they were being auctioned off for Southern plantations
For a simplified prescription for a complex circumstance
The hypocrisy of the time is one of major concern
Those who celebrate their ancestors’ arrival on such places as Ellis Island
Seem to not recognize that they too were from legacies of foreigners
Yet the romanticism ends quicker than it really began as this has been forgotten
We want them invisible to our lives unless they are speaking “our language”
Obeying our laws which we ourselves often abuse or ignore
Cooking our food
Washing our clothes
Making our beds when we travel
Manicuring our lawns
An underlying principle of the “American Way”
Exploitation of laborers in the form of free or significantly reduced labor
Voiceless
Faceless
Humanless
A nation is again putting those who are different on notice
Pray like us
Believe in our God
Believe in our Way
Concede your history and beliefs for a better way
A way made in “America”
Bipolar Nation
Should be our new anthem
For we have continually practiced a policy of forcing either or outcomes
Whether it was 1776
Or during the antebellum period
During the times of McCarthy and his hunt for Communists
We remain steadfast in being the obstacle in our own way
Bipolar nation
Either you have or you do not
That includes education, financial freedom, and health care
Yet we continue to look the other way until our hatred of others spills on our doorsteps
Our rhetoric of violence to not only those beyond our boundaries but those who reside within is disheartening
If you speak too sharply you may find yourself in the reach of the tentacles of the “Patriot Act”
More so like yelling “fire” in a crowded movie theatre
You are labeling yourself as if you wore a scarlet letter or Star of David
Bipolar nation
We are who we’ve always been yet most do not want to see
A nation whose fractured past prevents us from un-fracturing our present and future…

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In Hopes of Tomorrow

04 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry

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Art, communities, conflict, Culture, humanity, Motivation, Performance, Politics, Purpose, social awareness, social critique, social justice, society, Streams of consciousness, struggle, voice

Testimonials provide snapshots into the hearts and minds of the deliverer
Yet listeners translate those messages through tempered receptors
Constructing organic truths
Privileging their distinct sensibilities
Progressivism, liberalism, moderatism, or conservativism
Frame the lenses
socially accepted or recognized
Furthering the national pastime of divisiveness
Found morally
Religiously
Intellectually
Sexually
Economically
Racially
Throughout the landscape
Forefathers are perpetually propagated without further interrogation of their imperfections as founders of a more perfect union
A union of enslavement
Classism
Patriarchy
Reservational warfare
A more perfect union that applauds systematic hate and oppression
The birth of a nation of, for, and by the people
is idealistically my hope and wish for the future inhabitants
Yet, a harsh reality exists of
Wall building
Segregation
Exclusion
Gerrymandering
Victim-blaming
Selfishness
1% has become synonymous with what it has always been
A form of tyranny that ironically is fit for a king
Yet, this is a nation without monarchies
Without caste systems
Without true democracy
Incompleteness is an unfortunate present reality where
Love is not equally recognized
Cultures are not equally recognized
Languages are not equally recognized
Opportunities are not fully possible
In hopes of tomorrow
We must truly address the dispair of today…

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Assail

18 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry, Uncategorized

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Advocacy, Community, Culture, Discrimination, Diversity, expression, Florida, Freewrite, Gender, homosexuality, humanity, Identity, injustice, oppression, Performance, poetry, police state, Politics, power, Race, racism, sexual orientation, social critique, social justice, Social norms, society, Streams of consciousness, violence, voice

A festive congregation of diverse forms
Gathered in joy and celebration
Unknowingly targeted for reasons
Subjectively debated and/or ignored
The setting places those who truly
Seek to be advocates and allies
In perilous conundrums
Scared hearts and bodies
Others cold and riddled
Propaganda is the last thing needed
Or wanted to be heard
By a family, lover, and/or friend of anyone
Who was assailed
Violated
Traumatized
Or even scapegoated
Identities fractured by incomplete
Or politicized objectives
The absolute truth may never truly be known
Yet we can concretely deduce
There are no true winners if all of us
Truly embrace our humanity
Advocacy means we share our voices with those
Who oppression continues to work to mute
Advocacy means not playing the victim-blaming game
That often becomes the means of historical erasure
With each last breath or aching wound
Whether physical or emotional
We have all lost and are under assail
Race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and culture among other aspects of our humanity
Have been further eroded
Orlando is just one of many examples of the
Detrimental effects of hate no matter the rationale
Love is not the solution when it is cloaked in complacency and inaction that shuns levels of sacrifice
Until each breath inhales this unalterable truth
There is no true we, yet the current national, societal, and political stances
Empower an assailant that has historically mutated
Each second, minute, hour, day, year, decade, and century
Known as the “American” F
Fear…

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Timorous Island

29 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry

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Tags

Art, Community, Culture, expression, humanity, injustice, law, Performance, poetry, police state, Politics, power, Purpose, Revolution, social awareness, social critique, social justice, society, Streams of consciousness, voice, World

Fixed in an outdated past
Where sheeted figures assailed the night
Burning lumber at the entries of those deemed inferior
A time fallacy was accepted truth to preserve a stunted status quo
One that could find a charred figure extended from a tree
We are supposedly beyond those moments within our history
Yet, as much as most continue to deny, as a nation, we have not healed
A legacy of contempt and hatred for those who are systematically “othered”
Made to disavow their identity and personhood to stay or enter
By the embodiment of a misguided arrogance
of a figurehead whose political stances should upset most’s sensibilities.
We are hoarders of a figmented freedom and truth as espoused.
We are fragmented factions of individuals who are forever works-in-progress towards ideals that were more exclusionary than collectivizing.
Internment camps, reservations, plantations, and forced institutionalization mark a history that is often absconded by revisionists.
As the rights of women continue to be decided by those who seek to objectify and posses them while not listening
oil continues to be placed at a premium in respect to the lives and traditions of Native Peoples.
Black lives are forever contemplated whether or not they matter.
Theoretical boarders are being replaced by executive orders and cowardly Congressional puppets.
Reclamation of antebellum doctrines and ideologies reignite divisions reminiscent of the North vs. South.
Those who love the same sex are denied all or many aspects of their civility because of debatable rules and rationales.
Allies are being made into enemies.
Neighbors are disrespected while simultaneously depended upon for their labor.
The continued poaching of a fragile morality is what remains.
Silence and pre-war isolationism didn’t work then and won’t work now.
While an audacity of hope was an idealistic battlecry
we are left with an undeniable truth on this metaphorical timorous island…

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Welcome to…

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry

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Art, Culture, expression, Hegemony, Inequity, Performance, poetry, Politics, Poverty, Self interests, Social Class, social critique, social justice, Social norms, Status quo, Streams of consciousness, underrepresented groups

A society that consumes all that it can
without any regard to others
is a troubling reality for many.
An insatiable diet
of appropriated culture and stagnant ideologies
that benefits those who’ve always received social favor.
Corruption is a word used
yet avoided for certain acts
when dominant norms are sustained or even cultivated
to protect the invaluable status quo.
Change requires more than most beneficiaries wish to entertain
as the theory’s interest reigns supreme
in a land which indulges in cultural gluttony
at the expense of all who have been deemed expendable.
An appetite of this variety knows nor accepts any limits
as its privilege and power
have historically been made clear
to all who have the ability to comprehend.
Welcome
Welcome to the tragic world
of the donkey and elephant
during the Barack Obama presidency….

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Amid A Changing Landscape

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Patrick S. De Walt, MBA, PhD in Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Advocacy, Art, children, communities, Culture, Diversity, elderly, expression, Identity, Inequity, marginalized groups, oppression, Performance, poetry, Politics, Poverty, social critique, social justice, Streams of consciousness, underrepresented groups, World

Language, both constructive and damaging, is often used without thought of consequence
Impacting the thoughts and minds of all those within reach
Challenging is the nature of life’s path
Causing us to reflect on what has been as we seek to make things anew
Laws are passed with the expectations that they will
in some form or fashion
Provide a livable framework that we, the people, will experience the benefits
Our worlds are based on this idea
Whether it’s accurate or inaccurate is not often what we wish to ask ourselves
Anarchy is not an option, as it requires things from us that we are more inclined not to:
Demand
Sacrifice
Persevere
Fail
Resist
Become ostracized
These sets of circumstances are foreign to those who seek the comforts and the spoils of a system that historically and habitually negates those who are most vulnerable
And then blames them for all that these influences result
Echoing words or images of “Che” or El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz
on commercialized t-shirts does little to represent the struggles and ideals
resulting in their martyrdoms
Instead they further alienate us from key principles that should acknowledge the complexities that exist within our figured worlds
We are a collection of beings that range an array of beliefs, sizes, and histories
All of which only capture a glimpse of who we really are
As each are vulnerable to the limited interpretations of all who come in contact with us
As if we were a painting from one of the great artists over time
Yet, we don’t get the luxury of intense and time demanding reflection and understanding that is often afforded these inanimate objects
We are passed over as if we never existed in the first place
And then society wonders why those who are marginalized dare to:
Resist
Rise
Yell
Revolt
As if the world has gone deaf to their calls and cries
To remind all of us that they are
Still here
Still human
Still belong

Amid a changing landscape
one thing remains constant
The world can be a cold and uninviting space
for those who do not fit within the acceptable box
A box that is too rigid and constraining for many of us
Yet, we operate as if we are willing participants
of a pathological social experience that
Destroys more than it helps
Devalues more than it promotes
Hates more than it loves
Constrains more than it frees

Freedom is what we were sold
Yet, how many of us actually reviewed the bill of sale as we do when buying our favorite pair of jeans in our favorite store?
How many of us ask for a refund or exchange when our purchase doesn’t suit our needs?
Why does freedom not receive the same level of critique, if not more?
A self-proclaimed “land of the free, home of the brave”
could at least not default on its promises to all of those who it has depended on since before its inception like it’s currently attempting to do
during this present-day
Debt Limit Ideological coup d’état
that’s ultimately affecting those same persons who often go nameless
until we want to blame them for their perceived deficiencies
The members of our society who are poor, uneducated, ill, unemployed, disabled, elderly, and/or children are on our economic and social frontlines
These lines are invisible to most of us until life’s challenges place us there
To toil, linger, or bounce back
Welcome to the new age
Which is actually an evolved representation of a segregated past that maintains our separation from each other and more importantly to any meaningful and life sustaining form of an inclusive humanity

Amid a changing landscape what will your role be?
What will your actions amount to?
Amid a changing landscape…
Will you represent the change that it truly needs?
Or will you represent what’s already represented?

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Contact Email

dewalt@patricksdewaltmbaphd.com

Recent Posts

  • In Search of Leadership April 6, 2020
  • She Calls April 24, 2018
  • She’s Crying September 3, 2017
  • Letting Go To Let Live June 26, 2017
  • Bipolar Nation June 18, 2017
  • The Casual Eye June 11, 2017
  • In Hopes of Tomorrow June 4, 2017
  • To Capture a Heartbeat June 4, 2017
  • Transient Echo June 4, 2017
  • The Reason June 2, 2017
  • Thoughts in Motion February 18, 2017
  • Assail February 18, 2017
  • Timorous Island January 29, 2017
  • From Beyond the Prism October 16, 2016
  • Trajectory June 19, 2016

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