So how was the first month for you?

Well, here we are, the first month of the new year has passed. Technically, it's not the new year anymore, it's been demoted to just "this year" now. And I'm sure that all your resolutions, hopes and yearnings are shaping up just fine. Or not.

So, what have we got to show for ourselves thus far: increased tensions between the factions of the Syrian conflict and no signs of easing (still a lot of grunting going on around the oil hole, but this or that innocent bystander its being offed just so the other guys know we're serious); the stream of migrants and asylum seekers hasn't slowed, but we've got a new scapegoat, Greece, so we're good for distraction for some time to come (give a country an forced, impossible and unalterable economic program to fulfill then compain that they're not spending money on the right things apparently doesn't count); the circus called the primary election run-up in Fantasyland is getting downer an dirtier (and less amusing for those of us who will only feel the effects of the insanity); financial markets are reeling the world over (but that capitalism thing is still being touted as a sure bet); the climate's getting worse (even if most folks still don't know the difference between climate and weather, and yes, they'll vote in the same yokels next time around to take care of the problem); the snackless, clueless American rebels in Oregon have managed to get someone killed (but as always, he was too little a pawn to become a martyr); and we've got a new epidemic spreading against which we have absolutely no defense; and, if I had to pick the most-heard phrase for the month, it would either be "I'm afraid ..." or "You know what scares me ...". Looks to me like we're probably a bit worse off than when we all took a break for the end-of-the-year holidays.

As the observant reader of the last few posts will have noted, we've got a lot going on in our minds, but hardly any of it has anything to do with thinking, in the generally accepted understanding of the term. We've got our bones and rattles out, we're doing our haka thing, and we're churning out propaganda at an all-time high, but notne of it appears to be helping. Of course, none of it can help because none of it has anything to do with what actually needs to be done, which is to get a clear idea of what needs to be done, then do it. No, that would mean getting off the couch or taking your offspring along on some activist endeavor instead of showcasing them for your friends at the next little-league event or taking a stand in public and not only in the livingroom, and it would mean that you'd actually have to think about what you are doing and why, and have an understanding of time that goes beyond next weekend.

Yes, as painful as it is for me to say it and as painful as it is for you to have to read it: maybe, just maybe, it's time for all of us to use more of our brains and less of our brawn to address some of the things that have to be done.

Reflections of an optimistic cynic

This isn't the first time I've been torn between what I experience and what I want to be true. We all go through phases like this I'm sure. But, it's getting increasingly difficult to keep my spirits up these days. There's simply too much inanity and too much insanity to have to contend with. And while I want to believe that somewhere, perhaps behind the scenes, certainly unbeknownst to me, there are people succeeding in making their world a better place, it also feels like they're getting harder and harder to find.

What's even worse, and as a life-long student of language most distressing, is how we've allowed our language to be commandeered by newspeakers, marketeers, and propagandists. We are subjected, day in and day out, to an unending harrangue of false truths (we're-the-good-guys-they're-the-bad-guys), conscious bias and prejudice (if-you've-seen-one-Muslim-you've-seen-a-terrorist), over-the-top hyperbole (I-could-shoot-people-and-not-lose-votes), unmitigated aggression (#black-lives-matter), calls to violence (carpet-bomb-the-Middle-East), and bald-faced "justifications" of corruption, greed and oppression (Citizens United). Along with those 5,000 ads we're subjected to every day, we have this ceaseless stream of reality distortions against which can hardly defend ourselves.

One the one hand, I can understand why nothing happens. People are cowards by choice or through resignation, people are afraid for we're repeatedly shown what will happen if you step out of line, too many people have just enough that they can be made to fear those who have less. We can always find scapegoats and if we can't find them ourselves, there are more than enough interest groups to give you comprehensive list to chose from.

And we fall for it every time.

One of my favorite cultural philosophers Jean Geber wrote, "Every reform is a mere attempt at resuscitation." He was right. You can only resuscitate someone (or something) that's dead. And most of what we hold dear is dead: our money system, our banking system, our economic systems, our political systems, our education systems, our social systems ... dead or dying before our eyes. They're being hijacked, kidnapped and murdered before our very eyes. A stacked deck, a rigged game, a grand illusion, a con; deception, deviance, distortion, dishonesty, all in the name of the good, the better, the just, the humane, the compassionate, the fair, and what's right.

Sure, I would like to think that things will improve, but they can't under the current conditions. I would like to think that humanity will come together and realize that they have much more in common than what separates us, but they won't as long as we can be so easily set against one another as we are. I would like to think that change could come without all the pain and suffering that most great changes in history have brought with them, but it's getting more and more difficult to hope otherwise.

Maybe it's time to just let it all collapse. Maybe we are headed into a new dark age. Maybe we simply haven't got the smarts or the will or the desire or the wherewithal to save ourselves from all the suffering. If we don't, then we don't deserve to not suffer. If we do, then maybe we should start doing something to embrace the change that will come.

A touch of magic

We love to think that we live in a rational world, one governed by reason, rules and good old common sense. Sometimes we do. Most of the time we don't. Over the millennia of human existence, there are some things that have changed very little.

I was reminded of this recently by a very banal, and, for me, uninteresting event which got more attention than I thought it deserved on my Facebook page. Apparently, a good number of people were very upset by the fact that a Cincinnati Bengals linebacker took a cheap and dangerous shot at a Steelers receiver. I watched the video, of course, the hit was unnecessary and excessive, and many fans were calling for punishment for the alleged offender. [Disclaimer: The reactions showed up on my timeline because I'm originally from Steeler country, so many of friends are still there or still root for the old home team. I'll admit: I don't, I don't care, and at this point in my life, even though I played it myself in my youth (practically a necessity for acceptance), I think American football is way past its prime and should be retired, but that's another story.] And, what I have to say has little to do with this particular sport -- it is truly just the catalyst -- but rather with who we are as human beings.

For all our crying out for freedom and individuality, we're still social creatures: we want to belong, somewhere, to some kind of group, either well-constituted, like a family, or even more amorphous like sports-clubs' fans. It's easiest to see in the US where sports have become an actual fetish. Sporting events are always clothed in drama, in excitement, from marching bands (everybody in lockstep) with lots of brass (battle horns) and drums (oh yeah, lots of drums), the teams' colors, painted faces (warpaint?), slogans, hymns, and symbols (the Steelers' "Terrible Towel" springs immediately to mind). There's lot of yelling, screaming, cheering, booing, singing, and wailing. It's for good reason that the word "fan" is merely a shortened form of the word "fanatic".

The marketing of these events, gladitorial in nature, in which winning is not nearly enough ... you have to defeat, stomp, crush, slaughter, obliterate, or annihilate your opponent. "Prepare for war" was one of the viral memes for the very game that became the focus of attention. And if all's fair in (love and) war, why would there be any concern for someone pushing the rules? Politically, it's acceptable, for example, as politics are often run very much like sporting events: we rally to the colors, sing the songs and hymns, blow the horns, beat the drums and set off to do the same to our enemies; it's funny how sports are considered harmless, even though they aren't, and the wars are known to be harmful, but they're treated as if they aren't.

In either case, there's a touch of magic about being in the stadium and going with the flow and the crowd, but when something bad happens, are we then individually no longer responsible. We fired our team on, we distort and disfigure ourselves to belong to the group, but then? From ancient cultures through the great empires and down to the present day, some things just haven't changed very much. We get caught up in the feeling of the moment, the rush of excitement, and we lose sight of the fact that what was once a haven for us isolated souls has become a hell for those who are not us.

Yes, it can happen anywhere.

Making stories true whether they are or not

Conspiracy theorists of a certain kind like to deny that we were ever on the moon. They denigrate that narrative by saying it's a myth. The most common use of the word "myth" is probably this one. When we want to stress the fictionality or untruth of a story, a tale, a narrative of any kind, we call it "just a myth".

There are stories that are documentably false, stories that have such a slight and small grain of truth in them that to even hint that they are real or true or accurate should be reason enough to doubt the intellectual integrity of the person making the claim. But, there are any number of such stories circulating and they are believed and cherished and held in high esteem nevertheless. The prime examples of which are those which somehow describe (some would go so far as to say define) our culture or nation or any similar larger-than-just-me group. It doesn't matter which particular culture or nation you take, they're all pretty much the same in this regard.

These stories are full of heroes and heroines, larger than life persons and deeds, catastrophic and cataclysmic events that threaten annihilation, superhuman feats of daring, unfathomable cleverness and wit ... the good guys always win, order is established (or restored), and if we would only keep these stories before us, we could live happily ever after. So, how is that in some cases we can slam others for propagating myths, but in certain other cases, we're willing to lay our lives down for a story we can verify is simply not true. That's one of the things that so fascinates me about human beings.

Some countries, like the Nordic ones for example, have actual old myths and sagas to call upon. Other, newer nations, like England, France, the USA have more recent histories, but their tales don't pale in comparison to the older ones. After all, they're just stories, they're just myths, so why do we get so flustered and hot under the collar when others, particularly someone from a different culture, calls them into question?

To many moderns -- or postmoderns, or whatever it is we think we are these days -- think that classical myths are simply childlike attempts to explain things the people couldn't understand. In a sense this is true, even today. Given our rather deficient understanding of history and the path humankind has traversed, given our overzealous belief in technology and our alleged advancements, we can't begin to appreciate them. If we can recognize, however, that what myths that we believe in do is give us some kind of common understanding of ourselves and who we are, then we can dig in a bit deeper and realize that perhaps the ideals they are trying to portray may be worth further consideration.

We obviously need new stories that bring us together, and we should be aware that it is easy to be blinded by one's own sense of greatness, or wanting to feel like more, or wanting some sense in one's life. What we need is to become aware of what these stories would mean if we could make them true. We need to be more conscious of their significance and the threats they bear. There are definitely two sides to the myth coin.

It's all about perspective, or is it?

One of the most insightful, sometimes biting, and, unfortunately, too short-lived TV series ever produced was Father Ted. Those of you on the left shore of the Atlantic may not have ever heard of it, but it was, one of the few TV shows I have been willing to sit down and watch. I don't mention this because I want to plug the show, but because there was a scene in one of them that smacked me upside the head the first time I saw it and which has left a ringing in my ears ever since. Yes, sometimes, in the least likely of places, you can find just the key you need to open the door to a new world. And, thanks to the wonders of the internet, of course, I can share it with you (... and the important part comes after the tea kettle).

It's all about perspective, isn't it? But the real question that comes to my mind is, "How many of us are Dougals (that would be the young priest in the scene)?

You can scoff. Go right ahead. You can think I couldn't possibly be talking to you, but just how sure are you? After all, we love perspectives as postmodern denizens of Spaceship Earth. We live from perspectives. We thrive on perspectives. We live and move and find our being in perspective. Am I exaggerating? I don't think so.

Just what is "perspective"? Well, it's a way of looking at things, it's a particular way of looking at something, it's looking at something from a particular point of view; that is, it's a way of looking at something that depends rather essentially on the person doing the looking and the particular point from which the looking is taking place. If I'm looking at an elephant, let us say, from the front, then one of the most striking features I see is its trunk. If you are looking at the same elephant from the rear, well, then you have to decide whether it is the tail, what it hides, or whatever that is most prominent in your view of things. Having a particular take on a particular view that is particular to you has very much in common with what we call "opinions". And therein lies the rub, as Billy Quiverlance would say. When you get right down to it, perspectives are pretty much just opinions.

Now, for all of you who think I'm equating your way of looking at the world with looking at an elephant's butt, let me add that there is nothing wrong with opinions in and of themselves; not any more that there's anything wrong with looking at an elephant from the back or any other point of view. Opinions should be the result of thought, not a substitute for thought, but I do think you'll agree that there are far too many opinions that we are exposed to these days that have more in common with Dougal's comprehension of the world than Father Ted's. Yes, Bill, you are quite correct, the rub is beginning to chafe.

What most of us don't know, however, is that having a particular view of (any)thing(s) and knowing that it's our particular view is a rather new phenomenon in the evolution of the world. Oh sure, we all take it for granted, but it's really only something that we humans have been wrestling with for about the last 500 years. In geological or evolutional or even historical terms, that's not long ago at all.

It doesn't surprise me that Dougal hasn't fully come to terms with what perspective means. By the same token, it doesn't surprise me at all that most people don't deal with perspectives, and certainly not with opinions, very well. My problem is that in contrast to the show, where Dougal is rather quiet and reserved, today's Dougals are the ones making the most noise.

Isolation and massification

We're such big stuff, we Westerners, we highly-advanced, technologically-savvy, possession-addicted want-it-alls. Yeah, there's nothing that we don't think we deserve, well anything pleasurable, luxurious, flashy and envy-instilling, that is. Nah, there's not a resource so precious, not a landmass so pristine, not an environment so enlivening that we wouldn't sacrifice it to satisfy our greed, our need for more, our own personal satisfaction.

Oh, you can go to church on Sunday and pray all week that you don't get on the wrong side of G-d's wrath. You can believe for a whole monthful of Sundays that the witness you bore is some kind of get-out-of-hell free card. You can have undying faith that science is on your side or you're on science's and don't need any of that superstitious bunk. You can strut and parade and peacock your way all over town and through the mall, but in the end, I mean at the end of the day, when the sun goes down, when the cold dark of night engulfs you, you're still just another spoiled, overfed, frightened and lonely child, regardless whether your team crushed its weakly opponents or not. And when you drag your sad eyes open tomorrow morning, you'll only have the certainty that you're another cog in the wheel, a number in the system. Just when was it that you lost touch with everything that mattered?

Welcome to life in the postmodern world. Our world, t-h-e world, the only world we'll probably ever know, and it's a world of our own making. A world in which lifeless, soulless, imaginary (juridicial) entities, corporations, are people, and real people, people like you and me and our jerk of a neighbor are no longer even human. We're customers, consumers, clients who nobody listens to nor cares about once our wallets are empty. A world in which money, the love of which is the root of all evil, is free speech, and the more of it you have, the louder you can be. A world in which machines are programmed to make cookies all a bit different so that you get the feeling, have the illusion, that when you pull it out of the package, it was made just for you. A world in which we can individually customize any product or service to be delivered by a machine. A world in which machines are smarter, quicker, faster, more capable, and in the majority opinion more valuable than any single one of us.

Oh sure, you're you. You're your own person. You're in charge of your own life, but not in the least. From morning till night you're told what to wear, what to eat, how to dress, how to smell, how to talk, to be cool, to be noticed, to be twittered, if you're lucky, into your 15 seconds of fame. Sorry Andy, but we don't have minutes left for anyone anymore.

Yes, we're all our own selves, but selves disconnect from anyone who doesn't walk, talk, think, act, or like the same things we do. We're just lonely little selves. But you'll wave your home team's colors, or your school's or your company's or your country's, so that everyone can see that you belong, that you're one of whomever, but there your lonely self is merely an anonymous member/fan/alumni/citizen in the crowd.

Such is our postmodern world, and we all know, but few of us want to admit, that, well, things just can't go on like they are. Something has got to give. And it will, I can assure you. But the real question is, are you ready for it?

“You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change.”
― Le Guin, The Dispossessed

A new year, a new approach

An obnoxious purple dinosaur once remarked that sharing is caring, and despite my aversion to the character himself, I will freely admit, he does have a point. Sharing can take on any number of forms, and there is a line when crossed turns sharing into interference, so we should generally follow his advice, but not blindly. I mean, one of the reasons I blog is to share ... my questions about people and life, my thoughts about the world around me ... not because I primarily think that I have something of value to add to the already overburdened channels of communication we are subject to in our everyday lives, but because there might be someone here or there who stumbles across this or that and perhaps pauses to consider, think, question, or even seriously reflect. It doesn't matter (to me, at any rate) whether you believe in G-d or some other kind of Supreme Being or evolution and chance, the fact remains that we humans have minds and like the saying goes, minds are a terrible thing to waste. But let's face it, when we look out into the world, it's easy to get the feeling that more are being wasted than used, let alone used wisely.

One of the primary mind enhancers that we possess is the simple fact that our minds become better/stronger/more adaptable/insightful/open/critical/capable the more we use them. Please note, I'm not talking about the brain, which is a mere physical organ. No, I'm talking about whatever it is that goes on in/via/by means of that organ that we can't grasp with any of our physical senses. I'm talking about a quality of the brain -- albeit it a potential quality -- not some mere measurable quantity.

And so, instead of simply trying to explain things, or criticizing the faults in many people's thinking, or pointing out the flaws in logic that we are so often subjected to, or merely pleading that we should be less hateful and kinder to one another, I would like to invite you to participate in an often-claimed-but-rarely-exihibited, highly-praised-but-seldom-practiced, often-maligned-but-never-decimated, highly-suspect-and-highly-dangerous adventure called reflective critical thinking. As you suspect, all thinking-based activities are threateningly close to one's own thought processes and belief systems, and thus can be considered "philosophical". Philosophy, as Wikipedia or any dictionary will quickly tell us, comes from the Greek word meaning "love of wisdom". Wisdom is, sadly, in short supply these days, but you can only get it if you use your mind to explore the whys and wherefores of your world. That means, for better or for worse, that you have to take a few minutes now and then to retreat from the world of hustle-and-bustle, job-family-money, and stimuli bombardment to simply think about what you think.

Karl-Otto Apel, a German philosopher, once remarked that the practice of philosophy is in essence the scrutinizing and questioning of things that are self-evident (das Hinterfragen von Selbstverständlichkeiten); that is things we simply take for granted. Sometimes -- most times, I would maintain -- it is to our advantage to simply try and get to the roots of why some things are. It has two very huge advantages: first, it allows us to simply think a bit differently than we do every day (change can be refreshing), and second, it gives us an opportunity to take a closer look at ourselves without having to expose ourselves to others (insight can be, well, insightful).

And so, in the coming posts, should you encounter topics that are not what you normally expect or that appear to be more than obvious, I welcome you to take a closer look and give it all just a bit more thought. Nothing is as it appears, but everything is simply as we know it.

A house built on sand

Our new year is not off to a very good start.

• Heads are rolling in Saudi Arabia, and they're our friends.
• The Saudis are chairing the UN Human Rights Council, but they're beheading people publicly.
• Oil is flowing from ISIS, but they're our enemy.
• Arms are being provided to the Kurds, because they're fighting ISIS.
• The Turks are attacking the Kurds, because the Turks are fighting the PKK.
• NATO tolerates the Turks' attacks, because the Turks are our allies.
• Foreign and foreign-sponsored militias are waging a war against a government, but it's still talked about as if it were a civil war.
• The Poles have lurched dramatically to the right, but they're still our friends.
• Freedom of the press is being squelched in Poland and Hungary, and no one raises an eyebrow.
• Individuals running for the candidacy for president of the US openly spout hate and racism, and are cheered on.
• Negotiations on major, international trade agreements are still so secret that our elected representatives have no access, but we're supposed to trust the negotiators.
• In Europe legislation took effect to unprotect people's savings essentially declaring their deposits bank property, and no one even questions the concept of "bail-in".
  

Oh, there's more ... but these are the first few that immediately sprang to mind.

And this is our foundation for a better 2016? 'Fraid not.

A new look at the new year

Resolutions and New Year's go together like milk and chocolate. To be honest, though, I gave up on resolutions a long time ago. The intentions were there, the intentions were good, they were, well, well-intended, but let's face it: we don't, won't and can't just flip a switch and change. That's not how we function.

As I noted last time, 2015 was pretty much a waste in the grand scheme of things. I know that every individual in every generation for as long as there have been humans walking this planet has looked out at the world around him and wondered if this is as good as it gets. Figuring that it probably is, everyone opts for making the best of it for themselves, and we end up with the same, old same-old. If you always think what you always thought, you'll always get what you always got. Simple. And accurate, if you ask me.

It's not just the cynic in me that figures the coming year won't be much better. It's like the cartoon I recently saw on Facebook:

The speaker asks the audience, "Who wants change?"
All the hands go up
The speaker then asks "Who wants to change?"
All the hands stay down.

Yeah, change is good, as long as it is other people who are doing the changing. And that's why I'm not all that excited and hopeful that 2016 will be much better.

So, even though I have no formal resolutions for the new year, I am plotting a course for change. Things just can't go on as they have the in past. It's time all of us starting thinking about the kind of world in which we want to live. For my part, I'm tired of the all the ignorance, hypocrisy, intolerance, selfishness, and self-absorption I'm forced to deal with. I've had enough of opinions for their own sake, of uncritical judgements, baseless assertions and unjustified statements. And, I've certainly put up with unreflected, unthought-thorough, simplistic, and prejudiced positions for far too long.

But, maybe I've picked the wrong year for all of that. After all, the Americans are going to pretend they're still a democracy and have a presidential election this year, so I'll most likely be inundated with all that I'm tired of, had enough of and don't want to put up with any more.

It's not shaping up to be much of year, is it?

2015: what a waste

When you've got as few years left on this planet as I have, it becomes bothersome when one of them is wasted. That was 2015. I'm not alone. Most of my friends and acquaintences are as old or older than I am, so they're in the same boat, if not worse. I'd like to have hope for those younger than me, but, well, I'm just not ready to believe that they're much different than their parents (probably my generation) or their grandparents (the preceding generation). After all, who raised them? Right. 'Nuff said.

Oh, I'm very clear on the fact that I have never, ever done everything I could to make the world better when I leave than when I showed up. It is not for lack of desire, nor lack of recognition, rather it is a simple matter of not recognizing what I actually could do and where I could best do it. I'm trying to make up for lost ground, but, as is so often the case, it's going to simply be too little too late.

In my own, very limited, very circumscribed way, I've tried to make you all aware that we're in the same boat. There is much more that all of us could do, but -- though the reasons may vary -- it just ain't going to happen. Why? Because we're too fat, dumb, and happy to make a difference any more.

It wouldn't bother me so much if so many of my generation couldn't do any better, but they could have. Instead, too many of them went for the brass ring, sold out, grabbed the gusto, or whatever else you want to call it. We had the chance and we blew it, because things were more important than people and having was more important than being; because we had got ours, and everyone else was left to their own devices. I'm not sure that a more selfish generation has ever been born. But no matter. It is as it is and there will be no changing it now.

My generation is the most populous that has ever visited Western Civilization. We had the quantity, without a doubt, but the quality was lacking. We said OK when we should have said no. We gave in when we should have stood up. We sold out when we should have sat in. We started taking when we should have been giving. We were finding fault when we should have been finding solutions. We were making sure we got ours and uncaring whether anyone else got theirs. We were placing blame when we should have been forgiving. And we don't have a lot to show for all our efforts.

Sure, a couple of us got fabulously wealthy and became heroes and icons for the rest, but in my lifetime alone we are also responsible, directly and indirectly, for the deaths and suffering of untold millions, because of the lifestyles we lead, the policies we support and the self-serving greed we cannot satisfy.

No, not all of us went along with everything or supported these actions, but we had it in our power to make a change ... a change for the good, for a better world, for a safer, less-polluted, and more prosperous world for all. And when you look at the year just past, well, it was just more of the same. We wasted another opportunity to turn things around.

I'm not kidding myself: I doubt this year will be much different.

Boom! it's started all over again

Yep, that's just how fast it goes: one minute it's last year, the next minute it's a whole new year. One minute you think you know what you're doing, the next minute, you're confronted with a whole new future.

Human beings are, without a doubt, fantastic creatures. We have more potential than any other species in all of creation. I don't care if you're a hard-core fundamental religionist or a die-hard evolutionist: there never has been and most likely never will be anything like homo sapiens again. Oh sure, we have it within our power to utterly destroy all we have ever known, but we have, at the same time, the potential to give birth to a future that is beyond our wildest imaginations.

Don't get me wrong: I have the greatest respect and honor for all sentient beings, for the incomprehensible power of Life, but when you get right down to it, we -- homo sapiens, human beings -- are the make-or-break factor for the planet. And as far as I'm concerned, our primary shortcoming is simply that we don't recognize and don't understand which role we actually play in the Grand Scheme of Things. It's too bad really. We have such potential. What a waste.

You can say what you want, but there is simply too much distrust, too much apprehension, too much uncertainty, too much ... well ... fear of everything and anything that is not ... well ... me, or us, or whatever or whomever we think we are. And therein lies the real rub, eh Bill?

It's really all very simple. We didn't "get it" last year. Lots of folks think they did. Even more say they did. Most just assume they did. But, they didn't. As long as you're still us-and-theming, disparaging others for trivial reasons (they don't believe in the same G-d, for example), excluding, demeaning, ignoring, denying, avoiding, well, you're just contributing to the problem. You're nowhere near the solution.

And that's why our problems are as big as they are. They're solvable, no doubt about that. They can be addressed reasonably and effective, efficiently, and economically solved, but where's the fun in that? Why should I share when I can have? Why should I pay when others don't? Why should I give when others just take? Why should I work when others are so lazy? Truth be told, the poorest of the poor in this world, share more, pay more, give more, and work harder than any one of us reading this message. But, we were lucky ... lucky as you can get, that we weren't born into "those circumstances". Any way you look at it, we're ALL in this together, but too many of us would rather spend their time and energy picking, choosing, sorting, sifting, and separating instead of ensuring we all have better lives.

So, yeah, it has started all over again. Another year, another failure. We haven't advanced as much as we have simply cast our old ways in concrete, chiseled our misdeeds into stone. Today is, in truth, no different from yesterday other than we have arbitrarily decided that this day is new. So, if it is, if it is to truly be what we proclaim it to be, it is up to us to make things new.

Who has the courage?