Great assorted topics, true stories, brilliant ideas, wonderful photographs, and honest reporting.
As well as my music,
" MobiusTripz"
Thanks, ~ John "Stephen" Swygert,
~a.k.a.~
"rokkinroll"
just a quick note I wrote that found print...I met you once through Chris Linn, who I pray is doing well...you owe me a lunch !...lol...congrats on your Mayorship...I was set to run, however my health is not so well, I would like to chat sometime and I have many great ideas and visions about this city... as you I do not care for the looks of Baltimore Avenue...my Father is retired Civil Engineer, I have great contacts of people I trust to get only advice from, never to do business with...point being, I am a thinker and I know what this town can be and I am certaine we share visions together that needs wings built by us working together...this town will soar again, and be charmful and even more peaceful. 240 522 XXXX...cell text voice mail...and I often do not answer...sorry for a long email but I had a few things to say before the chance we may have to speak soon....email is cool too...I am working on the computer and composing music a lot. Peace, Steve...and again, a sincere congrats...let the work continue!
http://times-news.com/opinion/x1071581868/This-was-a-word-that-all-of-us-should-be-using-more-often
Here is a link to my letter thankfully published in, "The Cumberland Times News". Please read it and give it great thought as we all travel through a difficult and changing time, together.
I coupled a few other thoughts (just dreams and ideas to share and plant a seed with those that read to think about what we can do together) here hoping to inspire and ask for help so we can do some great things here together...we have a great sounding board here at Cumberlndchat...and it is so wonderful to see so many people that care and communicate together for the greater cause of our city. Thanks everyone...you each enhance my life when I read your posts...even if it is not in favor of what I myself may have posted up...we can all be raised by a communitty...I know I have...peace, steve
I hope with your help to form a civil and volunteer group of think tankers, so to speak...that means anyone with a voice and a thought...be it the lay person or the learned man...so that perhaps we can theroize ideas that would be efficient and work upon our constitutional foundation while at the same time having the ability to overhaul the way things are currently done and through peace and proper communication.
I challenge any and all to respond and lets get together, have food and thought in a casual atmosphere and then have a round table discussion...politicians welcome, press welcome, everyone welcome.
...philosophers are sorely missed today, and so badly needed...
I hope some will reply.
I grew up at the communitty gatherings and they worked and have become a dying part of this post industrial society we are crumbling in today.
These wonderous get togethers work wonders swiftly and avoids conundrums as we have had recently which our election quite simply beared witness too.
If you are a person, you are welcome to, " Celebrate Cumberland Day !" ...it is a nice thought...help and let us all make it a dream come to fruition...I have some poor health and I need a good challenge to keep the mind sharper and the clicking body more agile....join me and everyone else and lets have a picnic this summer !
musicians, poets, actors, employees, bag boys, homeless, lawyers, citizens etc. all welcome !
I am not looking to out do town hall, however just a place to socialize, like Canal Place or Constitution Park, i.e., as a communitty where we can be festive and beneficial to the betterance of Cumberland while we socialize together in a festive atmosphere and collect the ideas that can more quickly transition Cumberland into the masterpice she will shine up to re-appear.
The Artistic and Historic Treasure Trove of Life to The West
Let's organize a Cumberland Family and Friends Picnic at the Park with everyone welcome to enjoy and celebrate Cumberland and share our mutual visions of a great future we are on the edge of here right now.
I hope you enjoy my article from the paper, and only leave it here as a reference to the message it contains for all to read.
A transition to that message is this:
Love is a beautiful word to share and how better to share it then by celebrating together as we should.
my email is rokkinroll@yahoo.com, and I will more quickly receive any reply there first, as I only check in here from time to time logged in...I usually just read the posts...FYI...thanks
My article that received press in Tehe Cumberland Times News on May 01, 2011
as follows:
Cumberland Times-News
April 30, 2011
This was a word that all of us should be using more often
To the Editor:
Cumberland Times-News
— On April 18, a couple of days after horrific tornados cut a swath from the midwest all the way to the east, the Tea Party was on our downtown mall peacefully making a statement.
Thanks to our Constitution we have a right to peacefully protest or make a statement with that in which we disagree. The Constitution is not broken, however it is the foundation to our modern day politics. The politics are failing, the foundation however, is still strong and healthy.
I grew up a conservative Republican, and at age 43, I feel like I have seen a lot finally, and understand less, as my horizons of interests and education spread. I have been 100 percent politically liberal of more recent, and I am leaning towards being Independent now.
The most refreshing observance on this day on the downtown Cumberland Mall as I drove past was a young man ( 18 or less) holding a sign that said, “ Say the Word Love Today.”
He had wisdom I have only recently understood in an older age.
I love that we have the right to assemble and make statements and peacefully gather in which to do so.
We are at a great crossroads in The United Sates of America! I wish we could be The United People of America, unfortunately a wish is only that. Let’s construct a better more efficient way to be a country and place it upon our already existing great foundation.
It is these flawed ways that have brought us here at this horrific juxtaposition, and it is time for these ways to swiftly peacefully go the way of the past and easily towards least resistance. The ways of the past have swiftly overtaken us and are nearly about to consume our country, broken in oh so many ways.
The tornados were devastating, say nothing more. We are peaceful and wise. I pray to a gentle God for all, and I love each of my brethren equally. Love is a powerful word ... use it often.
This I submitted to The Cumberland Times News for printing acceptance on this 19th day of April 2011.
I post it here for any other eyes that may fall upon it.
Peace and Love
Steve
LOVE IS A POWERFUL WORD
Sunday April 18, 2011, a couple of days after horrific tornados cut a swath from the midwest all the way to the east, the tea party was on our downtown mall peacefully making a statement.
Thanks to our Constitution we have a right to peacefully protest or make a statement with that in which we disagree.
The Constitution is not broken, however it is the foundation to our modern day politics.
The politics are failing, the foundation however, is still strong and healthy.
I grew up a conservative republican, and at age 43, I feel like I have seen a lot finally, and understand less, as my horizons of interests and education spread.
I have been 100% politically liberal of more recent, and I am leaning towards being Independent now.
The most refreshing observance on this day on the downtown Cumberland Mall as I drove past was a young man ( 18 or less) holding a sign that said, " Say the Word Love Today".
He had wisdom I have only recently understood in an older age.
I love that we have the right to assemble and make statements and peacefully gather in which to do so.
We are at a great crossroads in The United Sates of America!
I wish we could be The United People of America, unfortunately a wish is only that.
Let's construct a better more efficient way to be a country and place it upon our already exisiting great foundation.
It is these flawed ways that have brought us here at this horrific juxtaposition, and it is time for these ways to swiftly peacefully go the way of the past and easily towards least resistance.
The ways of the past have swiftly overtaken us and are nearly about to consume our country, broken in ohhh so many ways.
The tornados were devastating, say nothing more.
We are peaceful and wise.
I pray to a gentle God for all,
and I Love each of my brethern equally.
TITLE:
BANANA FACE /
PETROL COFFIN NAILS, MODERN TECHNOLOGICAL POST-INDUSTRIALIZATION 2011 usa
I exhaled smoke into the air,
Burt's Bees Beeswax and Banana Hand Creme
restore youth to old dry guitar jammin hands
and I smear a little across a now dry face too
cold air bites and drys taught skin
inhale...hold it in...exhale
perspective changing, rearranging, stranging,
a banana seed resides now on my face
seed in grease pours into a pore
what happens next is real I implore
I scream it with vigor this tale of truth
to lie a tale of a banana seeded face would be so very uncouth
there inside a pore this seeds lap of luxury
so sprout it did quick indeed
funny what creative tales whips up in the mind
the storms made by smoke and weed
leaves came quicker then blink of eye
bananas in bunch right close to my ear
the things that were happening brought many a stare
things cant be repeated, things such I hear
bowl now empty the bananas quickly multiply,
all i see is yellow in my eye
need a banana man...good for the soul
I have many for free, just don't ask why
I use organic brands of notoriety
that blend into soul as sweet poetry
caressing and nurturing with healing love
organic is from heaven above
petroleum all around from oil of matter decayed
is that organic ? from which we make synthetic
carcinogens and poisons all around everywhere
strategically molded shapely merchandised coffin nails
(excerpt pasted on FB March 18, 2011 appx. 4 a.m.)
(with it as a chorus accompanied by a few more lyrics to fade down in the chorus as written with lyrical tablature)
TITLE:
PETROL COFFIN NAILS, MODERN TECHNOLOGICAL POST-INDUSTRIALIZATION 2011 usa
CHORUS OF NEW TUNE:
petroleum all around from oil of matter decayed
is that organic ? from which we make synthetic
plastics...CARCINOGENS and POISONS all around everywhere
strategically molded shapely merchandised coffin nails
gotta be a better way
be
a
better
be a better
be
a
better
way
gotta be a better way
what's to fight over?
makes one think a bit...aye ?
~end new chorus~
rhyme not why bother
flows anyways if the mood is befitting
banana seed makes banana tree
upon my face is sitting...whoahhh! (real hippie sounding)
Instinctively I seek the hookah smoking caterpillar
but he is not near by
i scream out Alice help me
get this banana tree from my eye
a banana tree grows from my face no more
the mysterious tale comes toward an end
sleepy weed banana face was I for a moment
just kidding creative whimsical weedless pretend
I am the son of a Retired Colonel,
and I knew when I was very young,
I wanted to please my old man,
I thought glory would be bought with gun.
I thought the way to progress,
was always paved through war,
relentless driven machine,
the cost of this progress gore
True progress I have learned,
comes only through grace and peace,
working towards what is the best right now together,
true reward is feast
I too would be a warrior
and travel far and wide
it was in my blood born with
gleamed like promise in my eye
prideful I mislead myself
my father a great man
honest by nature and caring
I did not see that being a soldier meant offering freedom and peace
I saw only what i thought must be right
and my brother too would go to fight
if need be
west pointers prepared always
but never hoping for heavy artillery
these were my real life super heroes
the men I adored
I saw what I saw with strange perspective
me and my friends wanted to go and fight wars
we were kids full of excitement
and yearning for adventure galore
not yet wise to the ways of the world
not understanding the true cost and terror of war
so a dream never recognized
a blessing that was well disguised
thankful to never fight in my life
of an eye for an eye
today I am so full of life
change not I would have died
The passage of years happening faster
time speeds up with age
because perspective is so powerful
it is often overlooked through the focused
of the most intent searching eyes, yet still blind
flow doth make rhyme where none exists
perplexed word myth
or riddle could be
perspective always the key
you are today the exact age that you were when you first read this
plus that moment of time that has thence passed since that first moment
perspective will prove through the passage of time
that each time you read this over many years that this axiom will hold true
and it will be with each year passing more abundantly clear that time speeds up for each of us.
been here in cumberland, md ten years,
buying a house...trying..
bad health has haunted me,
tears well up...feels like crying
i am 43 and physically broke,
the only man that financially can help me is my father,
i am about to lose my home...another washed up dream perhaps,
or a door opening to freedom
dad has helped so much already
money tossed at a sinking ship
again i am sliding down
the stinking black abyss
perspective is this
plow ahead and keep faith
stay close to the loved ones and the friends
support to lean against, time not to waste
what does one do, when a physical wreck
unable to support the self and losing respect
already gotten so much help the ship is still sinking
humble, somber, ego shrinking
st pattys day today
i signed for a letter of forclosure
how quickly things can change
even for the good
never overlook a gift horse in the mouth
i do not know what is going to next unravel
perhaps it is time again to move ahead in struggle
i still do like to travel
each day is not a promise
no guarantee of the next moment is a given
i pray to God to sustain me
he gave me such a life worth living
FROM FACEBOOK
